PROJECTS

We are political scientists, grounded in a collective movement for intersectionality-minded strategies to acknowledge the problem of sexual harassment and gender discrimination, and to pursue systemic change.

Our strategy leverages the influence and reach of our professional association – the American Political Science Association (APSA) – to scale up adaptations of empirically-tested interventions.

As political scientists, we study the way that institutions shape behavior and the distribution of power. This puts us in a unique position to identify the shortcomings of our existing governance structures and norms and design interventions to address these issues. By partnering with the APSA, our work will model, facilitate, and incentivize change in the climate and culture of the discipline and establish a model for other disciplinary professional organizations internationally.

The aims of our research

#01—improve awareness and practices of majority-identified colleagues

#02—improve departmental microclimates

#03—increase department-level attention to inclusion issues

The main outputs of our work will be:

A Climate Toolkit

The Climate Toolkit will incentivize and empower departments to achieve the project outcomes. This involves developing: 

  1. a Department Climate Study to increase awareness of and concern about problematic department cultures,

  2. an Upstander Bystander Training to help train individuals in harassment intervention techniques, 

  3. a Dialogues Adaptation Project to help improve department microclimates and increase department-level attention to key issues of inclusiveness, and 

  4. a Policies and Practices Project which partners with the APSA to promote our findings and proposed policies for use across the social sciences. 

These outcomes aim to improve awareness and practices of colleagues; render significant, measurable improvements in the overall climate in academic political science departments; and increase department-level attention to broader inclusion issues.

 

Research Presentations and Publications

“#MeTooPoliSci: Leveraging APSA to Address Sexual Harassment.” Roundtable scheduled for presentation at the American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting, September 10-13, 2020.

“#MeTooPoliSci: Leveraging a Professional Association to Address Sexual Harassment in Political Science.”  (Elizabeth Sharrow, Nadia Brown, Rebecca Gill, and Stella Rouse).  Paper prepared for the International Conference on Long-Term Global Perspectives on Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Policy and Practice, Museum of Work, Norrköping, Sweden, March 8-10, 2020. [participation cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic]

We will update this section as more publications become available!

Our work prior to the NSF award:

  • Nadia Brown edited a special issue of the Journal of Women, Politics, & Policy about “Me Too Political Science,” featuring two articles by Brown, Rebecca Gill, and many other political scientists. The content is also now available as an edited volume published by Routledge (2019).

  • Nadia Brown published an article in the Washington Post,  Monkey Cage about the work of the #MeTooPoliSci collective (8/30/2019) 

  • Nadia Brown and Elizabeth Sharrow co-authored an op-ed in the Washington Post with Melissa Michelson and Dara Strolovitch regarding intersectionality and sexual harassment. (3/4/2019)

  • The #MeTooPoliSci collective and the Women’s Caucus for Political Science convened the #MeTooPoliSci Short Course on “Addressing Gender Discrimination in Political Science,” at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, MA. (8/29/2018)  

  • $25,000 grant from the Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs, American Political Science Association Special Projects Fund, “#MeTooPoliSci: Addressing Gender Discrimination in Political Science.” Co-PIs: Nadia E. Brown, Rebecca Gill, Jennifer Merolla, Melissa Michelson, Elizabeth Sharrow, Patricia Stapleton, Dara Strolovitch. (7/2018)

 

 

 

Other publications relevant to sexual harassment and gender discrimination in political science and academia:

  • Cantor, David, Bonnie Fisher, Hyunshik Lee, Carol Bruce, Gail Thomas, Susan Chibnall, and Reanne Townsend. 2015. “Report on the AAU Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct.” Washington, DC. 
  • Sapiro, Virginia, and David Campbell. 2018. “Report on the 2017 APSA Survey on Sexual Harassment at Annual Meetings.” PS – Political Science and Politics 51(1): 197–206.
  • National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). 2018. Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. DOI: 10.17226/24994.