Murray State University research team receives grant for intersectional research

This past August, a Murray State University social science research team called ADVANCE was on the receiving end of a $195,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to aid its research on intersectionality on the university’s campus.

ADVANCE is conducting this research with the goal of studying the recruitment of women faculty in STEM focused positions at Murray, as well as their retention in those positions. Dr. Maeve McCarthy, is the principal investigator for ADVANCE, and in an article on the university’s website, the new NSF grant is supplementing a grant from the foundation that the research team was awarded four years ago.

She also explained how the money would be used, saying, “The new supplemental funding is to study how gender issues intersect with other identities such as race, LGBTQ or disability status. Our social science team will be conducting surveys, interviews and focus groups to study this. We will ultimately make some recommendations to the University based on our findings.”

ADVANCE’s research efforts will be spearheaded by associate professor of sociology, Dr. Diane Nititham; associate professor of sociology, Dr. Alexandra Hendley; and associate professor of psychology, Dr. Michael Bordieri.

While each of these three researchers will be involved in all of the research every step of the way, each one will use their specialization to focus on a specific element of the work. Bordieri will focus on the survey, Nititham will focus on the interviews, and Hendley will focus on the focus groups. The team has also hired a group of external consultants to make sure the participants of the focus group have their privacy and identities protected, while Hendley has worked to plan how the focus groups will run, and is responsible for making sense of the findings.

The research team has decided to keep the sample size for most of their research small, Bordieri explained the rationale, saying, “Traditional quantitative research methods often overlook the experiences of faculty with marginalized identities, so our goal is to specifically recruit marginalized faculty to amplify their voices and focus on their experiences. We aim to be inclusive in our research, so we also developed a survey that was sent to all faculty members at Murray State. We did this to ensure that we could hear from all faculty while also keeping our focus on faculty who have historically been understudied.”

The team hopes that the data they gather will allow them to have more insight into how underrepresented groups on campus are treated by the campus community at large.

Nititham talked about the strengths provided by the structure of their research, saying, “By having multiple methods of data collection, we can better contextualize the stories of our participants. Giving them the space to speak in different ways, whether through individual interviews, the survey, and/or focus groups, we can directly hear how they understand and respond to their experiences.”

The theory of intersectionality is the process of looking at the various ways different identities interact with each other, as well as other groups, and the idea that people should look at diversity through many different lenses. The approach of exploring cultural identities through many different positions allows for a deeper understanding of how one’s identity can impact how they move through the world. 

ADVANCE was started with the focus of increasing the success and representation of women in STEM careers, but lately has started to look at diversity more widely. Now, according to Bordieri, the scope of the project has expanded to learn from current faculty members to better understand their needs and how they view the world and the campus. 

Bordieri went on to say, “Our work is focused on exploring how race/ethnicity, LGBTQIA+, and disability identities intersect with marginalized gender to better understand the unique barriers and resiliencies of faculty with these intersecting identities. As an example, a faculty member who identifies as black and female might face additional barriers (e.g. sexism and racism) and have unique strengths and perspectives that are often not captured by traditional research approaches or initiatives that focus on a single identity in isolation.”

The Institutional Review Board has approved ADVANCE’s research, and so it is now underway. Bordieri noted the importance of the IRB’s approval, since the focus of the research includes sensitive information, and the project is gathering information through multiple research phases. Already, one survey has been sent out to all of Murray State University’s faculty members, through the school’s Provost’s Office. 

Hendley talked about her hopes for the project, saying, "Murray State aims to foster a diverse and inclusive environment, and taking steps to support its faculty is an important part of that goal. Our hope is that this research will offer insight as to how to best recruit and retain faculty, particularly those in underrepresented identity categories."

More information about ADVANCE research can be found on its webpage.

More information about Murray State University can be found here.