Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: The Nature of Race: Concepts of Human Difference in the Social and Natural Sciences

人们常常声称，种族之间存在着显著的生物学差异的观点，如果不是从美国公众的头脑中消失的话，也几乎已经从科学中消失了。然而，一些观察人士对这种描述提出了质疑，他们辩称，许多科学家仍然把种族理解为人类的生物学标志。这个论文研究项目，“种族的本质”，通过提出两个广泛的研究问题来解决这个争论：今天的科学家如何定义和概念化种族？科学家向公众传递了什么样的种族概念？利用知识社会学和相关的现有研究成果，评估了一系列关于社会位置（如性别、年龄、学科）与种族概念化之间关系的假设。资金支持数据收集，数据收集将通过对两所大学约100名在美国出生的教师和本科生进行访谈来完成。调查对象是随机从人类学系和生物系抽取的；已申报主修人类学、生物学或其他专业的本科生。定性内容分析用于描述受访者对种族的定义，以及他们用来支持和阐述这些理解的论点、主张、证据、图像和隐喻的类型。采用描述性统计和卡方检验等定量分析方法，探讨了社会地位对种族概念化的影响规律。该项目的调查结果与各级教育工作者特别相关。学术界的科学家和其他教育工作者都表现出道德上的关切，即有关人类多样性的科学研究应以一种不加剧而是减轻种族主义的方式传达给公众。但是，如果那些在反种族主义的公共教育中被唤起合法性的科学家们在这个问题上实际上持有明显不同的信仰，那么保证生物种族是一个不科学概念的笼统声明可能需要重新评估。这个项目对不同学科的科学家如何理解种族和种族差异进行了仔细的评估。

It is often claimed that the idea of significant biological differences existing between racial groups has all but disappeared from science, if not from the minds of the American public. Yet some observers challenge this depiction, arguing instead that many scientists continue to understand race to be a human biological marker. This dissertation research project, "The Nature of Race," addresses this debate by posing two broad research questions: How do scientists today define and conceptualize race? What kinds of concepts of race are transmitted by scientists to the public? Drawing on the sociology of knowledge and on relevant existing research findings, a series of hypotheses concerning the relationship between social location (e.g. gender, age, academic discipline) and racial conceptualization are also assessed. Funds support the collection of data, which will occur through interviews conducted with approximately 100 U.S.-born faculty and undergraduate students at two universities. Faculty respondents are randomly sampled from departments of anthropology and of biology; undergraduates from among those who have declared majors in anthropology, biology, or other fields. Qualitative content analysis is used to characterize respondents' definitions of race and the types ofarguments, claims, evidence, images and metaphors they use to support and elaborate these understandings. Quantitative analyses including descriptive statistics and chi-square testing are used to explore patterns of variation in racial conceptualization according to social status. The project findings are particularly relevant for educators at all levels. Both academic scientists and other educators have demonstrated ethical concern that scientific research relating to human diversity be conveyed to the public in a manner that does not exacerbate but rather attenuates racism. But blanket statements assuring that biological race is an unscientific concept may need to be re-evaluated if the scientists whose legitimacy is being evoked in anti-racist public education in fact hold a markedly diverse range of beliefs on the matter. This project provides a careful assessment of how scientists in different disciplines understand race and racial difference.