Week 2 of Research Bootcamp - Universalism Rant

As we approach the close of this week, we are discussing universalism in science and reenacting skits to emphasize the importance of holding our colleagues accountable when they exhibit universalism (i.e. discriminating against scientists due to their notoriety and prestige) and truthfully I didn't realize how prevalent this is within science and academia. So many people don't take into consideration the socioeconomic barriers and the implicit biases in science that affect people's perception of who is valuable as a scientist. Of course, scientists are not immune to being racist, sexist, or even just inconsiderate of the institutionalized racism that continues to plague academia (and all industries), but hopefully more people hold one another accountable and challenge those preconceived notions. I've had my own experiences with not having access to certain universities, programs, opportunities and resources due to socioeconomic barriers, and I come from a position of privilege already given I am white and live in Rhode Island and my state university is relatively well-funded and does not carry the same historical background as HBCU's. Hopefully we can all recognize the many factors that affect what makes a scientist deemed worthy or prestigious and have social capital, and how this differs from the actual legitimacy of their work, their effort, or their value as a scientist and individual. I hadn't known before that this was a common problem throughout science, but I feel as though usually these biases take a more sinister form as covert infrastructural systems throughout science and higher education, as well as broader society in general. This is why creating spaces for people who are historically underrepresented, discriminated against, and generally just not encouraged by society to pursue a higher education in STEM fields is so important. It is also important as someone with privilege to hold individuals and the systems prevalent throughout society (not just science) responsible for maintaining these harmful ideas and barriers accountable. It's a privilege to be shocked by how prevalent I guess this is, and while of course this does come from privilege, I would also like to believe my prior lab and previous experiences, as well as my own personal beliefs and efforts to intentionally undermine these systems is what makes it so shocking that many scientists do perpetuate these harmful systems that maintain power for the privileged few.

Fun fact that I learned from this exercise:

Land grant institutions were established to increase opportunities to higher education and support an agriculture-based economy and were viewed as lesser than liberal arts colleges. This divide was then exacerbated and used to reinforce institutionalized racism when the Morrill Act of 1890 (Geiger, Finlay, Sorber, & Fairbanks, 2015) created separate land grant institutions for African Americans, and then subsequently the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 provided additional funding for land grant institutions but left the distribution of these funds to the states (Slanton, 2010) . As is consistent with the history of the United States, states chose to invest in white land grant institutions as opposed to Blank land grant institutions. This is just the tip of the iceberg regarding the forgotten and overlooked history of how institutionalized racism came to be so ubiquitous and unchallenged throughout America. Likewise, many of the other values that provide white, straight, wealthy men with the resources and opportunities to succeed and achieve notoriety and prestige are rooted in history and thinly veiled as being attributable to exclusively effort or intelligence.

Contributed by C. R. C. Long. (2018). Universalism in STEM: Case Study & Analysis.

Branchaw, J. L., Butz, A. R., & Smith A. R. (2019). Entering Research (2nd edition). New York: Macmillan