Welcome and Joanne McGrath Cohoon Memorial Plenary
The Professional Culture of STEM: Challenges and Possibilities with Erin Cech
What does the culture of STEM have to do with inequality? Professional cultures of STEM, which give each discipline its particular “feel” and unite discipline members under a taken-for-granted system of meanings and values, are not benign. Drawing from several US National Science Foundation-funded studies, articles, and my recent book, Misconceiving Merit, I argue that these professional cultures can have built within them intersectional inequalities along gender, race/ethnicity, and LGBTQ+ status. I discuss the role of three cultural ideologies—the Schema of Scientific Excellence, Depoliticization, and the Meritocratic Ideology—in producing these disadvantages. I will then discuss how we can interrupt these ideologies: how we can be vigilant about these ideologies in our organizations, how we check our own understanding of STEM excellence, and how we can cultivate a growth mindset around inclusion.