Project Inspiration

Project Mission

The idea for this project grew out of discussions between Dr. Sheila Jaswal (Associate Professor of Chemistry at Amherst College) and her students in November 2015 during a time of momentous change on campus. The school had just spent four days participating in an intensive sit-in at Frost Library, discussing the pain and marginalization universally felt by students of color on campus. This sit-in movement, titled the Amherst Uprising, was attended by faculty and students alike. After hearing from STEM students involved in the uprising, Dr. Jaswal asked for students to share their experiences through a Google Form. She was interested in how students were experiencing Amherst's STEM classes, office hours, labs and approach to curriculum and students. Their responses were more revealing than she could have ever anticipated. Excerpted below, the voices of these students have served as the inspiration for our course.

"I have always felt a sort of "impostor syndrome" being a woman of color in STEM...It can feel disillusioning and disheartening to feel like you are up against the best and the brightest, groomed by professional parents, amazing high schools, and resources like tutors and feeling like you have nothing to show for why you are in the sphere of STEM besides your passion and interest."

Publications

Jaswal S. (2019) Being Human in STEM:Moving from Student Protest to Institutional Progress. Diversity & Democracy, 22 (1), 
21-24. Featured on the cover and in editor's note.

Bunnell, S., Lyster, M., Greenland, K., Mayer, G., Gardner, K., Leise, T., Kristensen, T., Ryan, E. D., Ampiah-Bonney, R., & Jaswal, S. S. (2021). From protest to progress through partnership with students: Being Human in STEM (HSTEM). International Journal for Students As Partners, 5(1), 26-56.

The “Being Human in STEM” initiative aims to empower students, staff and faculty to reshape their classrooms, laboratories and departments to create an inclusive and equitable STEM community that enables humans of all identities to thrive and flourish.

Anchored by the annual HSTEM course offering, the HSTEM initiative at Amherst has evolved to include hosting faculty and staff gatherings to share inclusive STEM wins, hack sessions to share ideas and resources for managing the summer internship & med school recommendation letter marathons effectively while limiting bias, working with campus partners to co-sponsor events highlighting Humans in STEM and/or bridging STEM and the Humanities, and serving as a hub connecting students, staff and faculty committed to equity in our STEM community.

Our website provides an array of resources to facilitate "Being Human in STEM" projects, ranging from an inclusive curricular practice handbook and short workshops to semester-long courses, at colleges and universities across the country.

The HSTEM network has grown to include a dozen other institutions offering "Being Human in STEM". We held our fourth annual regional HSTEM summit (traditionally Amherst, Yale and Brown) virtually in April, 2020. We were awarded an NSF i-USE grant to hold the first national Being Human in STEM conference, which has been postponed to June, 2021.

View the Nov. 19, 2020 Five years of Being Human in STEM at Amherst & Beyond Celebration during Amherst's Bicentennial Celebration.

Visit the timeline of the initiative in the early years.