At OSU I’m an instructor in the Physics Department and Director of Instructional Labs. This Fall I will begin running our Teaching Seminar for new GTA’s. Through these positions I teach 100 – 200 students each term and work with both graduate teaching assistants (GTA’s) and undergraduate learning assistants (ULA’s, former students from the course).

One of the challenges we face is getting all students in a group to feel invested and to participate. While there are many reasons a student might not get involved, one that is definitely at work is a feeling of isolation related to race and / or gender. What happens to the dynamics of a group when one member is a different race or gender than the others? How do we identify such groups? What are the roles of student feelings and behaviors? What actions can and should we take to address the situations? Do we create homogeneous groups, or is this just pushing the problem downstream?

My position in the department means I also work closely with our other instructors. I’m currently heading a department review of our labs. Something we’ve touched on is group dynamics in lab. I would like our new curriculum to explicitly address inclusivity in the way we run our labs.

There is no single answer to any of these questions. Nonetheless, I believe we need to get a better handle on the causes and effects of marginalization and on how to address it. One of my goals as a Fellow is to explore the roots of and responses to marginalization. Another goal is to expand the list of questions we’re asking. What else should we be considering?

Education

Ph.D., Physics

MP.h., Physics

B.S., Physics