UNM professor awarded $1.5 million grant to put intersectionality first
August 22, 2023 - Savannah Peat
There’s more that meets the eye when it comes to most things in life. In one specific area of research, however, the impulse to dive deeper and look beyond the surface had long been avoided.
That’s something UNM Sociology Professor and director and co-founder of the Institute for the Study of “Race” & Social Justice Nancy López has made a priority with the concept of intersectionality, long before the rest of the world caught on.
“One of the organizing principles of intersectionality is that we can’t understand complex inequality if we focus on only one dimension of inequality,” López said. “It’s about having a new vision. When we examine inequalities in terms of race alone or ethnicity alone or gender alone, or whether you're the first in your family to earn a four-year college degree alone, we may miss opportunities to remove barriers that may not even be visible.”
Now, she has just been awarded a prestigious $1.5 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant from the Hispanic-Serving Institution Program (HSI), to create a hub, a connector, and a resource for all who are interested in advancing equity and student success in STEM. It’s a huge honor for López and UNM.
“There is no secret that we haven't had as much success in diversifying who earns degrees in STEM and who becomes a leader in STEM. We know that we have to do something different,” López said. “Business as usual is not working. Our hope is that through creating a convergence space – a community of practice – for faculty, administrators, and students, across disciplines to come and look at some hard numbers, share ideas and promising practices that impact student success.”
It’s part of a $3 million total lump of five-year funding, UNM will be dividing with other HSIs, including: New Mexico State University (NMSU), Central New Mexico Community College (CNM). with Felecia Canton-Garcia and Teresa Maria Linda Scholz, and multiple branches of the City University of New York (CUNY) López’s alma mater, including City College, Lehman College and Hostos Community.
Read more in the UNM Newsroom
