Scientists and graduate students who belong to minorities have reported experiences of stalking, sexual assault and harassment, threats, as well as guns pulled and police called on them while conducting fieldwork. A new study proposes safe strategies for these at-risk individuals and their institutions.
Two scientists from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, Amelia-Juliette Claire Demery and Monique Avery Pipkin, have published their report in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
"As a result of identity prejudice, certain individuals are more vulnerable to conflict and violence when they are in the field," the study noted.
Racial and Gender Disparity and Its Effect On Mental Health
Demery explained in an article from Cornell that when they solicited input from students in the same department, they realized that a number of these anecdotal experiences, as well as the measures the respondents took, appeared to be universal and goes beyond their skin color.
The findings from the new guideline proposal support a previous study regarding race-related stressors. In 2019, David R. Williams, from the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, provided an overview of factors that adversely affect the mental health of "socially disadvantaged racial and ethnic populations" in a study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. For members of minority groups, exposure to discrimination and its adverse impact on mental health begins early in life, from a review of 121 studies analyzing the connection between discrimination and health in people below 18 years old.
In the responses gathered by Demery and Pipkin, it showed the presence of feeling threatened across scientists and students based on their race or ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, religion, or disability. The same discomfort is present for American scientists travelling internationally.
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In terms of gender, a 2012 study appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed a significant gender bias in hiring opportunities in the field of natural sciences. Both male and female scientists heavily discriminated against undergraduate female candidates compared to their male counterparts.
Going Beyond the Borders of the Cornell University
The Cornell news release notes that the proposal was originally planned as an internal document to be circulated within the researchers' department - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. However, feedback from their fellows, as well as the postdoc and faculty reviewers prompted the researchers to expand the scope of their efforts to provide help for more institutions beyond the academe.
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Jeremy Searle, a professor and department chair for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, notes the researchers' "important service" in working to keep field researchers safe, especially those who face more risks because of their minority identity.
In the published report, researchers detailed examples of situations that have put minority researchers at risk while doing fieldwork. For example, in a figure accompanying the report, a Black ornithologist experiences anxiety as law enforcement figures approaches her while in another, a Sikh entomologist had to endure conducting fieldwork in "a hateful landscape."
"It's an immense emotional and mental strain," Demery added.
Researchers also proposed a variety of strategies for the researchers on the field, as well as their supervisors and respective institutions to work together and minimize these risks in the future. A simple way available for all, in the recommendations put forth by the researchers, involves dissemination of the strategies outlined in the paper.
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