Keith B. Maddox - US grants

Stereotypes are believed to exist only when there is a socially meaningful categorical distinction between two or more classes of persons, such as different racial groups. The experiments supported by this planning grant test the hypothesis that light and dark skin tone represent distinct subcategories of black persons. Fictional works and historical accounts suggest that skin tone plays an important role in the black American community. In addition, these sources strongly suggest the existence of stereotypes about skin tone that bias one's perceptions of blacks. Although many researchers have measured beliefs about skin tone, or examined the proposed consequences of skin tone bias, few have tried to understand the causal role of skin tone in this phenomenon.

The planning activities for this research will take place in three phases. The first phase involves the collection of photographs of blacks and digital alteration of the skin tone of the persons pictured. The second phase involves preliminary testing of the photographs and two experiments using a group discussion paradigm. The third and final phase will involve analyses of the data collected from the experiments, interpretation of the results, dissemination of the findings at professional conferences, and discussion of the findings with colleagues.

The FAST-TRAC program at Tufts University School of Engineering will recruit, prepare, and support academically talented low-income undergraduate students to complete an MS in Engineering through Tufts' existing 5-year BS/MS program. FAST-TRAC's core features will be early outreach, support of the student-research mentor relationship, skill-building workshops, and undergraduate research experiences. Industry partnerships will connect students to current state of the art challenges in their fields. FAST-TRAC will establish a comprehensive and transferrable support framework to prepare low-income undergraduate STEM students for the increased rigor, culture, and expectations of a graduate program.

The FAST-TRAC research component will make significant contributions to the knowledge base about what inhibits and facilitates the matriculation of underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students into STEM graduate programs. This program will characterize the needs, perceptions, and research competencies of low-income students pursuing graduate Engineering degrees, and will measure the effectiveness of each program component in helping students achieve the MS degree. The project will measure the contextual supports and barriers to pursuing graduate education or securing a position in industry using the social-cognitive theory of career choice and development. This measure has been extensively used in the study of career choice and successfully applied to examine the roots of gender and ethnic disparities in STEM disciplines.