All Skin Folk: Mosaic Ethnography and Anti-Essentialism in Black STEM Research

• In Event: Black epiSTEMologies: A Multidimensional-Multiplicative Approach to Examining Blackness in STEM

Abstract

In Black Studies and cultural studies, the concept of the ‘afterlife of slavery’ describes the long-term consequences of the institution of chattel slavery in the United States (Hartman, 2007). The term describes the enduring economic, political, and social disparities that continue for African descended people even after legal emancipation. These disparities, and the ways that Black people have responded to them, are not static. They evolve and adapt to the particularities of the Black experience across space, place, philosophy, and time. Despite considerable research on the complexities of Blackness, ethnographies of Black strivings in STEM often assume consistency across regions, generations, religions, ages, and even professional interests in reductionist and homogenizing ways.

To address this problematic assumption, we developed mosaic ethnography as a mixed-methods approach to research informed by principles of anti-essentialist theoretical frameworks including critical race theory (CRT), Black liberation theology, and Black feminisms. Our theorizing takes place in the context of a national study on Blackness in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) higher education classrooms and cultures. The overall objective is to identify nuances or divergences in the lived experiences of Black people that provide alternative and competing notions of Black STEM strivings. Four core features of mosaic ethnography will be articulated during this paper session with instructive examples.

First, researchers commit to a working definition of Blackness. This requires a comprehensive review of related literature, reflective journaling, and attention to how popular culture represents Blackness in the immediate historical moment. We will summarize the process of defining Black for the members of our research team.

Second, researchers identify a setting where little is known about how Blackness is mediated, or where an aspect of Blackness is actively being rearticulated. We will outline how the increased representation of Black students in STEM majors and the release of high-profile films that explore the Black experience in STEM prompted us to ask new questions about racial integration, Black achievement and Black belonging. Third, mosaic ethnography involves selecting multiple, appropriate data collection strategies, which for our team includes participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, archival sources, and visual data analysis.

Finally, mosaic ethnographers uncover the specificities of Blackness as a social condition, culture, and political performances. Findings are organized around the patterns that reveal, shape or disrupt what we think we know about Blackness. We will outline how findings problematize existing approaches to STEM pipelines and matriculation for Black students, and probe the repositories Black STEM students use to make sense of Blackness in the immediate historical moment.

Summarily, our findings challenge approaches to Black STEM histories that prioritize consensus within communities of exceptional Black people: those with the resources to escape slavery, those who were literate, those with college credentials or notable skills, and those able to navigate respectability politics. This paper is significant because it explains how increasing chronological distance from chattel enslavement complicates studies of Blackness, and presents mosaic ethnography as responsive to the dynamic nature of Black identities and disenfranchisement.

Authors

• Ashley N. Woodson, Black epiSTEMologies

• Terrell R Morton, University of Illinois at Chicago