RACE AND GEOSCIENCE IDENTITY IN UNDERGRADUATES

A crucial component of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice efforts in the geosciences involves examining social and cultural norms in the field. Anti-racism action plans have called on geoscience departments to gather information on the experiences that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students have had in their programs. This has the goal of better understanding where the field can better retain BIPOC geoscientists, who are underrepresented at all levels in the geosciences. This analysis of students’ experiences can be accomplished systematically through a geoscience identity framework. Geoscience students who can identify, or see themselves, as geoscientists are more likely to succeed and persist in the field. An array of experiences ranging from fieldwork to faculty mentorship can influence a student’s geoscience identity throughout their education. Individuals hold intersecting personal and social identities, and BIPOC students in STEM fields have often reported tensions between their science identities and their racial or ethnic identities. The geosciences is no exception to this.

We surveyed 166 senior undergraduate geoscience majors at 99 universities in the US on their identities as geoscientists. Our survey also asked students to evaluate various elements of their geoscience programs on whether they encouraged or discouraged their geoscience identities. This study’s research questions are: 1) Does the strength of undergraduate geoscience students’ geoscience identity differ based on the students’ race or ethnicity?, and 2) Which experiences in an undergraduate geology program influence a student’s geoscience identity, and how?

Preliminary results show that white students identify as geoscientists more than their BIPOC peers. When divided further into gender categories, white male students report geoscience identities that are significantly higher than all other groups, including white female and non-binary students. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of students’ reports of their experiences in this survey can help illuminate why these divides exist and what can be done to remedy it.