Institute of Diversity Sciences at UMass Amherst
The Institute is a social change start-up within the university. It promotes STEM research on topics that advance knowledge about human diversity, access, and interventions that close gaps and promote greater equality.
The Institute:
- Acts as a matchmaker, bringing people together from different disciplines to share their work and learn from each other.
- Incentivizes multidisciplinary collaborations by awarding team grants for research projects using science, engineering, or technological approaches to address social issues.
- Hosts professional development programs for diverse cohorts of students in STEM to strengthen their sense of community in STEM and offer professional and leadership training to prepare students for early careers.
By connecting STEM to social justice, the Institute attracts large numbers of students and faculty from underrepresented groups in STEM. Almost 1400 people are affiliated with IDS, half of whom are at UMass Amherst while the other half are people at neighboring colleges and universities in the state, STEM businesses, and nonprofits. By creating a critical mass of diverse students and faculty, the Institute creates an ecosystem of community, belonging, mutual mentorship, and expands STEM career pathways for students. Our faculty and students come from natural sciences, social and behavioral sciences, engineering, computer science, health sciences, humanities, and the business school.
Mind & Life Institute
The Mind & Life Institute brings science and contemplative wisdom together to better understand the mind and create positive change in the world. While science relies on empiricism, technology, “objective” observation, and analysis, century-old contemplative practices rely on refined introspective methods that are equal instruments of investigation. Bringing them together has the potential to advance human well-being, make science itself more humane, and ensure its conclusions are far-reaching.
Dasgupta serves on the MLI Steering Council, a leadership team of scientists and humanists, that curates scholarly convenings, grantmaking, and strategic partnerships to fulfill the Institute’s mission of bridging science and contemplative wisdom and applying it to address social problems.
Efforts to address mounting global challenges must take into account our inner lives and how individual well-being contributes to collective flourishing. At the heart of today’s global challenges is a profound crisis of disconnection. Building on its 30-year legacy as a national organization, Mind & Life seeks to better understand the role of the human mind in creating these problems—and its potential to solve them.
Catalyze Tech
Catalyze Tech is an ambitious academic-industry initiative to enable collective action by tech companies to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in tech underpinned by research and evidence-based best practices.
In 2021-2022, Dasgupta served on the Catalyze Tech team that drew on the collective expertise of a 28-member academic-and-industry working group seeking to align the tech industry around collective action for DEI. The objective was to reimagine tech’s current siloed approach to DEI and aim for coordinated action by companies underpinned by academic rigor and evidence-based best practice that tackles root problems. The initiative culminated in the Action to Catalyze Tech (ACT) Report that provides leaders of tech companies with an research-driven framework and actionable next steps.
Story Collider
The Story Collider’s mission is to reveal the vibrant role that science plays in all of our lives through the art of personal storytelling. At their live stand-up storytelling events in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., people of all walks of life tell stories about how science has affected their lives. Story Collider shares a selection of these stories on their weekly podcast. Using their storytelling coaching practices, they have created an education program, which offers public and private storytelling trainings to both individuals and groups through customized workshops. From building connections to changing hearts and minds, storytelling is a fundamental tool for science communication, education, outreach, and advocacy.
Dasgupta serves on the Workshop Advisory Board that guides Story Collider on how best to reach educational institutions, students, faculty, health practitioners, field researchers and draw their attention to a storytelling approach to science education and science communication.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (The National Academies) provides independent and trustworthy advice to the United States people to facilitate solutions to complex challenges by mobilizing expertise in science, engineering, and medicine.
Dasgupta was invited to serve on an interdisciplinary committee of experts convened by the National Academies to write a consensus report with recommendations for actionable antiracist mechanisms to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM. This report:
- Reviewed research and evidence in which racism and bias create systemic barriers and impede STEM careers of historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups.
- Identified key levers, supported by research, that bring about sustainable organizational culture change.
- Articulated a forward-thinking research agenda to address gaps in knowledge about advancing anti-racism, diversity/equity, and inclusion.
Click here to see an interactive summary of the report here:
National Science Foundation
The U.S. National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states and U.S. territories. The NSF was established in 1950 by Congress to: promote the progress of science, advance national health, prosperity and welfare, and secure the national defense. The NSF fulfill sits mission chiefly through grantmaking. Its investments account for about 25% of federal support to U.S. colleges and universities for basic research and solutions-oriented research with the potential to produce advancements for the American people.
Dasgupta was invited to serve on the NSF Advisory Committee for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences from 2015-2020. This is a diverse group of leaders from a wide range of social, behavioral and economic science fields. The Committee oversees all program management and performance of the NSF directorate, and also reviews and advises on the broader impacts of programs within the directorate on the broader scientific community and nation, in terms of research, education, and human resources.
She also chaired the Committee of Visitors for the Directorate of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences in 2019. The U.S. National Science Foundation relies on the judgment of external experts to maintain high standards of program management, to provide advice for continuous improvement of NSF performance, and to ensure openness to the research and education community served by the foundation. The Committee of Visitors is appointed to provide external expert judgments in the quality and integrity of program operations and program-level technical and managerial matters pertaining to funding grant proposal decisions.
Society of Experimental Social Psychology
The Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP) is an international scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of social psychological research. Its mission is to create opportunities for direct and personal scientific exchange and collaboration among social and personality psychological scientists through its annual meeting. SESP members have PhDs in social psychology or related fields and hold academic positions or positions in applied settings. Dasgupta was elected President of SESP in 2017. She served as a member of the Executive Committee (2014-17), Chair of the Membership Committee (2016-17), Chair of the Publications Committee (2016-17), and Member of the Program Committee (2015-16).
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
The Society for Personality and Social Psychology is the world’s largest organization of personality and social psychologists. With over 7,500 members, SPSP strives to advance the science, teaching, and application of personality and social psychology. Its core focus is to serve its members through educational events, networking opportunities, resources, science funding, publication and promotion of research, and mentoring the next generation of personality and social psychologists. Dasgupta was Chair of the Training Committee (2017-18) and also served as Training Committee Member (2015-2019). She chaired the Diversity and Climate Committee (2008-2010) and also served as a member of the Diversity and Climate Committee (2006-08).
Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
Founded in 1936, SPSSI is a group of over 3000 scientists from psychology and related fields and others who share a common interest in research on the psychological aspects of important social and policy issues. SPSSI seeks to bring theory and practice into focus on social problems related to groups, communities, and nations, as well as the important problems that have no national boundaries. Dasgupta was an elected member of the SPSSI Council (2012-14), Co-Chair of the Publication Committee (2012-14), Gordon Allport Prize Committee Member (2010), and Dissertation Award Committee Chair (2005-07).