Scholarship for the Public Good: What We Value, How We Evaluate (April 24, 2023)
Channel: The Graduate Center Library, CUNY
Date: 2023-05-04

“Productive.” “Important.” “Influential.” Researchers chase these descriptors, which help secure jobs, grants, tenure, promotion, and acclaim. But how are these terms defined? Who decides when these qualities have been attained? Can they be communicated through metrics, and what biases are baked into attempts to do so? Further, how does prioritizing these qualities affect, and distort, the decision-making of individual researchers, hiring committees, evaluative bodies, and administrators? And what are some of the possibilities we can turn to instead?

The second event in the “Scholarship for the Public Good” series featured three experts on these questions, in conversation with each other:

- Dr. Bianca C. Williams (Associate Professor of Anthropology, Women’s and Gender Studies, Psychology, and Africana Studies, CUNY Graduate Center) is a former member of the Cite Black Women Collective and recently published the article “Black Feminist Citational Praxis and Disciplinary Belonging” in Cultural Anthropology.

- Dr. Nicky Agate (Assistant University Librarian for Research Data & Digital Scholarship, University of Pennsylvania) is co-PI on the HuMetricsHSS initiative, a Mellon-funded project to rethink research evaluation in the humanities and social sciences on the basis of shared values.

- Dr. Alyshia Gálvez (Professor of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center; Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, Lehman College)—whose research includes examining the colonial assumptions underlying higher education pedagogies, technologies and bureaucracies—moderated the event.

Articles and resources mentioned during event (or in the Zoom chat):

- Smith, C. A., & Garrett‐Scott, D. (2021). “We are not named”: Black women and the politics of citation in anthropology. Feminist Anthropology, 2(1), 18-37. https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.12038

- Williams, B. (2022). Black Feminist Citational Praxis and Disciplinary Belonging. Cultural Anthropology, 37(2), 199-205. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca37.2.04

- Cite Black Women Collective: https://www.citeblackwomencollective.org/

- Smith, C. A., Williams, E. L., Wadud, I. A., Pirtle, W. N., & Cite Black Women Collective. (2021). Cite black women: A critical praxis (a statement). Feminist anthropology, 2(1), 10-17. https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.12040

- AAA Guidelines for Tenure and Promotion Review: Communicating Public Scholarship in Anthropology: https://www.americananthro.org/AdvanceYourCareer/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=21713

- HuMetricsHSS (Humane Metrics Initiative): https://humetricshss.org/

- Walking the Talk: Toward a Values-Aligned Academy (HuMetricsHSS white paper): https://doi.org/10.17613/06sf-ad45

- HuMetrics Workshop Kit: https://humetricshss.org/your-work/workshop-kit/

- Fritzsche, S., Hart-Davidson, W., & Long, C. P. (2022). Charting pathways of intellectual leadership: An initiative for transformative personal and institutional change. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 54(3), 19-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2022.2054175

- Syllabus for Citational Practices and Politics (taught by Prof. Alyshia Gálvez, Spring 2022): https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8c3llit8m9g8kz/Citational%20politicsMALS2022.pdf?dl=0

- Archives for Black Lives: https://archivesforblacklives.wordpress.com, https://github.com/a4blip/A4BLiP

- Conducting research through an anti-racism lens: https://libguides.umn.edu/antiracismlens

- Lerchenmueller, M. J., Sorenson, O., & Jena, A. B. (2019). Gender differences in how scientists present the importance of their research: observational study. BMJ, 367. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6573

- Scholarship for the Public Good: Paths to Open Access: https://gclibrary.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2023/01/24/paths-to-open-access/

- Rinaldo Walcott on Black Studies and the Long Emancipation: https://youtu.be/HpmdGH_Y5EE

- Reenvisioning Scholarship in the 21st Century (Borough of Manhattan Community College): https://openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu/reenvisioning-scholarship/

- Making Good on Our Public Mission: The Future of Public Scholarship at the Graduate Center: https://publicslab.gc.cuny.edu/events/making-good-on-our-public-mission-the-future-of-public-scholarship-at-the-gc/