Kathryn Johnston Colloquium Abstract (Feb 26, 2020)

Privilege, Power and Leadership in Academia

As the diversity of people in higher education grows, Universities are struggling to provide inclusive environments that nurture the spirit of free inquiry in the presence of these differences. Throughout my career as an astronomer, from graduate student, through professor to department chair, I have witnessed these struggles firsthand.  Exclusive cultures result in lost opportunities in the form of unfulfilled potential of all members of the institution --- students, administrators and faculty alike. How to move steadily towards inclusion is an unsolved problem that hampers the advancement of knowledge itself. As every scientist knows, problem definition is an essential feature of problem solution. This talk draws on insights from dynamical systems descriptions of conflict developed in the social and behavioral sciences to present a model that captures the convoluted, interacting challenges that stifle progress on this problem.