Thanks to the generous support of Schmidt Futures, Heterodox Academy is pleased to announce the awardees of its 2023-2024 Open Inquiry in STEM Funding Competition.

Dr. Julia Schaletzky and Dr. David Bamman, UC Berkeley

Drs. Schaletzky and Bamman will investigate whether decisions to allocate public funding for STEM research are influenced by political or ideological considerations that impair truly free inquiry in STEM disciplines. To accomplish this, they will use text and language models to examine publicly available funding calls, funding agency notices, and the abstracts of publicly funded research articles to detect the influence of political or ideological considerations in funding decisions. Drs. Schaletzky and Bamman anticipate writing at least one journal article on their findings; they also will compile a large dataset for use by other researchers.

Dr. Danica Kulibert, Kennesaw State University

Dr. Kulibert will investigate how social norms that promote open inquiry might help with the retention in STEM disciplines of members of marginalized groups, especially by influencing their perceptions of self-efficacy and social belonging. To accomplish this, she will recruit a sample of undergraduate students majoring in STEM disciplines, measure their perceptions of how important open inquiry is in their discipline, and examine correlations between those perceptions and measures of self-efficacy and social belonging. Dr. Kulibert anticipates writing a journal article on her findings.

Dr. Elizabeth Weiss, San Jose State University

Dr. Weiss will investigate how various institutional gatekeepers (universities, museums, and journals) influence the conduct of research in physical anthropology in ways that impair open inquiry. To accomplish this, she will examine the protocols for access to collections of skeletal remains, the methods sections of peer-reviewed articles in leading anthropology journals, and laws governing the use of skeletal remains in scientific research. She anticipates publishing one article for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and one commentary piece for publication in a mainstream media venue.

Dr. Jason Manning, West Virginia University

Dr. Manning will investigate how graduate students in STEM disciplines manage political and ideological differences and conflicts with their peers and superiors, in order to better understand possible social impediments to open inquiry in STEM disciplines. To accomplish this, he will administer a survey to a sample of 2,000 graduate students in the top 120 physics, chemistry, biology, and psychology programs, as ranked by US News and World Report. This survey will measure political beliefs and identities, and strategies for managing conflict in different social relationships. Dr. Manning anticipates writing up his results in at least one article for submission to a peer-reviewed journal; he will also make his data available for secondary analysis by other researchers.