The ADVANCE at WSU program announces a grant competition aimed at generating publishable research on factors affecting the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in STEM disciplines. The overarching vision of ADVANCE at WSU is to develop an inclusive research institution whose faculty are supported by a system that promotes career-long excellence for women and men. We recognize that to achieve this vision, we must address issues associated with career pipeline “leaks” (i.e., places were women are lost from the academy.) We pay special attention to career transitions and those points in the career pipeline where we face obstacles to recruiting, hiring, retaining, and advancing a diverse faculty.

The program goals are to: (1) increase representation of women in 10 STEM disciplines at WSU by providing institutional support through programs, policies, procedures and climate change at critical points in the academic pipeline (e.g., recruitment, pre-tenure, and post-tenure advancement and leadership); (2) develop and disseminate innovative strategies that can be applied in similar institutions – research-intensive, rural, land grant universities – as well as other institutions, in general; and (3) put in place an infrastructure that gives these efforts highest institutional support and visibility and allows for transformation to continue past the lifetime of this grant.

We seek research proposals that directly inform one of the program's four key initiatives, including:

(a) Preparing and Recruiting a Diverse Faculty, to encourage gender diversity in science, math, and engineering faculties;

(b) Work/Life and Dual Careers, to facilitate greater integration of tenure-track faculty careers with men's and women's family and personal lives;

(c) Leadership and Advancement, to identify and overcome barriers to retention and advancement, especially post-tenure; and

(d) Institutionalizing Transformation, to assess institutional progress and disseminate best practices across the University and to the broader academic community.

The research must have WSU tenure-line faculty and/or the policies, practices, and structures that affect them as its primary foci. Further, research must include Science, Technology, Engineering and/or Mathematics (STEM) disciplines but need not exclusively focus on STEM disciplines.

Full description of the program and guidelines (pdf)

Questions and Proposal Submission: 

Amy Wharton, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology
College of Liberal Arts
WSU Vancouver
wharton@vancouver.wsu.edu
(360) 546-9617