The Diversity Problem in Science

Why is it we know so little about the lived experiences of scientists of color and their responses to the claims made about them in the name of science? Dr. Evelynn M. Hammonds, a historian of science at Harvard University, uses W. E. B. DuBois’ 1939 essay, “The Negro Scientist,” to address the question of the persistent under-representation of native-born U.S. African –Americans, Native Americans and Latino Americans in the U.S. scientific and technical workforce from the early 20th century to the present.

Dr. Evelynn M. Hammonds’ prominent research topics are at about the intersections of race, gener, science, and medicine. Her published works include two books; The Nature Difference: Sciences of Race in the United States from Jefferson to Genomics (MIT Press, 2008) and Childhood’s Deadly Scourge” (Johns Hopkins University Press). Dr. Hammonds is the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of History of Science, and a Professor of African and African American Studies. For five years prior to returning to full time teaching in 2013, Dr. Hammonds served as Harvard College’s Dean; both their first African-American and first woman to head the College.

This September 19, 2017, science cafe program was the fourth of a series funded in part by a National Science Foundation grant (#1611953) whose principal investigator was Karen Rader, historian of science Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Humanities and Sciences in Richmond, Virginia.