Highlighting New Faculty Research on Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion: CLAS Interdisciplinary Exchange [Video]

– Paul T Le, PhD from the department of Integrative Biology presenting: Investigating the Intersections of Students’ Science Identities and Belonging in Science.

    Identity is a complex term that encompasses a person’s sense of who they are. Our various identities are shaped by personal experiences, interactions with others, and historical and cultural norms. These factors play powerful roles in shaping our aspirations and sense of belonging in our communities. As a science education researcher, I am generally interested in students’ science identities and the resources and barriers in their lives that continually shift how students think of themselves within scientific spaces. By recognizing these complex dynamics that shape science identity, educators can authentically dialogue with students to co-create classroom spaces where all students feel they can thrive and succeed.

– Steven M. Vose, PhD from the department of History and Bhagwan Suparshvanatha Endowed Professorship in Jain Studies
Presenting Social Media Self-Representations and Research Hypotheses: Planning Fieldwork with a Global Jain Organization.

My current research project seeks to understand the ways that India’s turn to neoliberalism has produced new articulations of religious identities among Jain communities, especially as diaspora Jains struggle to characterize their religious values in an increasingly transnational setting.
In this talk, I will focus on the social media accounts of the Shrimad Rajchandra Mission of Dharampur, Gujarat as both an archive representing a religious organization working in the neoliberal model and as a source for formulating fieldwork research hypotheses. The organization started a comprehensive social media strategy in 2014 and now has the most robust social media presence of any Jain organization. Beginning in 2017, the organization increased the number of posts in English; it now posts almost exclusively in this language. The social media posts often feature Jain youths from India and the US talking about their experiences with the Mission’s guru. What can we say about the implications of the Mission’s appeal to Jain youth based on these highly curated self-representations? How can we formulate plans for fieldwork research from these social media posts, and what are the cautions and limitations of doing so?

End music “Dreams” by Benjamin Tissot from Royalty Free Music