The Institute of Diversity Sciences brings together faculty and students whose research focuses on equity or human diversity from multiple intellectual angles. We promote scholarship that is multidisciplinary, innovative, and impactful. We train the next generation of students in multidisciplinary inquiry and share our research with interested communities.
Human diversity emanates from biological, psychological, sociological, economic and historical factors. This diversity influences every facet of human experience — health, education, environment, and work, among others — and confers advantages or disadvantages to individuals and groups. Participants in this institute are searching for a multidisciplinary understanding of human diversity, inequity, or disparity within a content area such as health, learning, or climate change.
Four central questions guide this search:
- What are the causes of variation among individuals and groups within this content area?
- How do social contexts influence this variation?
- What are the positive and negative consequences of group-based differences or diversity?
- How can we best mitigate negative consequences of inequities, where relevant?
Our thematic research groups -- on learning, health, and climate change, respectively -- meet monthly and have sparked collaborations supported by our seed grant program and by the National Science Foundation. To learn more about last year's seed grant awardees, see below.
To learn more, contact Nilanjana (Buju) Dasgupta, institute director, or Leyla Keough, program coordinator.
