NC State Backs Effort to Advance Research on Women, Girls of Color

February 10, 2016 Nash Dunn 2-min. read

By joining the Collaborative to Advance Equity through Research, NC State committed to supporting its existing research about women and girls of color while also developing new opportunities for scholarly inquiry. Here, pictured from left, Dr. Karla F.C. Holloway (Duke University), Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry (Wake Forest University), Dr. Shayla Nunnally (University of Connecticut) and Dr. Blair Kelley (NC State University) stand together during a White House forum on Advancing Equity for Women and Girls of Color. Learn more »

NC State is part of a growing national initiative to advance research on women and girls of color.

By joining the Collaborative to Advance Equity through Research, the university has committed to supporting its existing research about women and girls of color while also developing new opportunities for scholarly inquiry.

“We hope this will shed light on the ongoing work in this area, demonstrate gaps in what we can be doing and show areas where we can grow and collaborate with one another,” said Blair Kelley, the collaborative’s lead researcher at NC State and the assistant dean for interdisciplinary studies and international programs in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

NC State is one of more than 30 institutions that have joined the collaborative, a voluntary affiliation of universities, colleges, seminaries, research agencies and other organizations. Created by the Anna Julia Cooper Center at Wake Forest University, and in conjunction with the White House Council on Women and Girls, the collaborative addresses a call for action voiced at a White House forum in November 2015.

The collaborative says that while women of color will constitute more than half of the entire United States female population by 2050, they are infrequently the central subjects of academic research. That deficit, the group says, has meaningful consequences for public discourse and policymaking.

Since the collaborative was announced last fall, members have committed more than $60 million to research on their respective campuses across the nation. NC State has pledged to:

Review existing campus-wide research on women and girls of color and share the results of the study with members of the collaborative to share best practices, highlight areas of institutional strength, and highlight opportunities to grow new areas of scholarship.

Leverage research funds to give faculty added incentives faculty to research women and girls of color.

Identify opportunities to invest in research-intensive, high-impact course proposals to allow undergraduate and graduate students to participate in new research on women and girls of color.

Support opportunities to host cross-institutional working groups, conferences and research projects that highlight research on women and girls of color.

Kelley said she encourages scholars interested in pursuing research on women and girls from underrepresented groups to join NC State’s newly formed Growing Research on Women of color (GROW) Project. Kelley is leading the campus initiative.

“Although Humanities and Social Sciences is spearheading this effort, we want representation across campus,” Kelley said. “NC State is well positioned to make a unique contribution, particularly because of the campus wide focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).”

Interested researchers should contact Kelley directly by completing the GROW Project google form (users will need to access the Google form from the same browser where they are logged in to their ncsu.edu email account). For more information, visit equitythroughresearch.com.