CASTLE Seminar: Capital Sharing and Underrepresented Scholars in STEM

Center for Advancing Scholarship to Transform Learning Seminar
Equity, Capital Sharing, and Underrepresented Scholars in Historically Hyper-Segregated STEM Fields

Evelyn Ambriz, PhD
Postdoctoral associate for mentoring and faculty engagement at Cornell University and a university affiliate visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin

Abstract:
Networks, funding, and acceptance as a legitimate scholar—forms of social, economic, and cultural capital, respectively—are essential for academic and professional success in the academy. For example, capital in various forms facilitates opportunities to strengthen award, hiring, tenure, and promotion materials as well as prominence. Racialized norms within STEM make capital sharing with scholars of color, particularly from scholars with hyperprivileged social standing, urgent. Currently, people of color are dissuaded from pursuing advanced study in STEM and their productivity is stymied. For example, people of color expect tokenization and exclusion. Further, they manage and navigate microaggressions such as others questioning their credentials. Capital can increase a scholar’s visibility, facilitate trust from others regarding knowledge and credentials, lend access to large networks of prolific and well-known academic: and it deserves conversation. In this seminar, I will present theoretical conceptualizations of capital and empirical research discuss to set the foundation for future conversations about what, and how, capital manifest and function as well as to identify opportunities for capital sharing to contribute to equity in STEM contexts.

Bio:
Evelyn Ambriz, PhD is a postdoctoral associate for mentoring and faculty engagement at Cornell University and a university affiliate visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a pragmatic organizational sociologist in the field of education and draws from various fields of to examine the impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and practices, including their unintended consequences and further opportunities for systemic change. Her scholarship is situated in the context of extreme cases of inequity and homogeneity: organizations historically segregated by race, gender, and class. More specifically, she examines how actors leverage their agency and interorganizational networks to influence individuals’ schemas of identity, organizational norms, and their surrounding context in order to challenge the reproduction of social inequality. She is also leading the development of Cornell’s Faculty Advancing Inclusive Mentoring programming, including an immersive conference, course modules, and resources for inclusive mentoring. Her work is informed by her work as an assistant dean of students at Cornell University, where she advised culturally based student groups, developed cross-racial educational programming, and engaged in mentorship and cultural humility work and initiatives. Her research has been published in the American Education Research Journal, The Review of Educational Research, and Organizational Theory & Praxis. She holds a B.S. in sociology and an MPA from Cornell University, and a PhD in higher education leadership from the University of Texas at Austin.

Intended Audience:
All are Welcome!

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