May 21 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Seminar held in person only.
Dr. Sara Brownell
President’s Professor, School of Life Sciences
Arizona State University
“Disclosure decisions: Exploring the concealable stigmatized identities of science instructors and how revealing can impact undergraduates”
Having instructors as role models in the undergraduate science classroom has been shown to be important, yet little is known about the representation of instructor identities that are not visibly apparent. Concealable stigmatized identities are identities that have some negative stereotype and are hidden, making it necessary for someone to actively reveal these identities. We emailed every science faculty member in the United States at research institutions and were able to document the prevalence of concealable stigmatized identities, the extent to which instructors revealed these identities to students, and the representation gaps between instructors and students with these identities. Further, we explored factors that contributed to instructors either revealing or concealing these identities. Few instructors reveal concealable stigmatized identities to students, yet we established that when instructors revealed these identities to students in class, all students benefit and students with that specific concealable stigmatized identity benefit disproportionately. This work highlights the potential impact that instructors with concealable stigmatized identities can make and pinpoints the need to consider concealable stigmatized identities in our effort to promote diversity and inclusion.