ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

GECC Diversity Roundtable: Race in the Academy

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

English Abstract

How does race persist in the history of science, and how is it reproduced within the structures of the academy today? Since January 2025, US federal agencies, government-funded organizations, and universities have faced significant cutbacks to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. An ideological shift that has affected institutions not only in the U.S. but abroad. How, then, can historians of science critically engage with the ongoing presence of race in knowledge production while navigating contemporary efforts to limit DEI programs and the broader work of critical scholarship?
This roundtable explores the historical and contemporary processes through which race and racism are embedded in scientific knowledge, institutional practices, and educational structures. It examines how scientific institutions including universities have historically defined who produces scientific knowledge, whose work should be valued, and whose experiences are rendered visible or erased. Participants will discuss how historians of science can study these dynamics critically, reflecting on both the ethical and epistemic stakes of racialized knowledge and how the discipline itself engages with scholars and students of colour.
By centering the persistence of race and racism in science and higher education, the roundtable foregrounds the responsibilities of scholars to challenge entrenched hierarchies and consider how the history of science can illuminate contemporary debates about equity, inclusion, and the production of knowledge in universities.

Sub Unit

• Roundtable

Chair

• Claire Ann Votava, University of California, Los Angeles

Participants

• Mary Kate Wolken, University of Minnesota

• Katherine White, University of California, San Diego

Session Organizers

• Ngamlienlal Kipgen

• Ε. A. Hunter, University of Chicago