Inclusive Graduate Programs: An AGEP Pilot in Physics and Astronomy

We introduce a new NSF project, Inclusive Graduate Programs: An AGEP Pilot in Physics & Astronomy that targets both advancing program practices and policies, as well as the mindsets of institutional and powerful actors in departments who tend to hold deficit views on the science competency of marginalized students. We aim to create systemic and lasting cultural change in a cohort of 17 leading physics graduate programs to lay the foundation for expansion across STEM. Acting as a research and practice backbone structure, our researchers will support physics graduate programs to become more inclusive and equitable, creating and sustaining a welcoming and supportive environment specifically for historically excluded groups, who in turn will matriculate, graduate and advance to academic faculty positions in greater numbers, diversifying the discipline. This project uses a novel structure that initiates deep and systemic change within a single STEM discipline across multiple, high ranking institutions and in close collaboration with the national disciplinary society–the American Physical Society. Our team will provide training in equity, change leadership, community buy-in, intersectionality, and action planning.