Welcome

The Being Human in Stem (HSTEM) Initiative aims to foster a more inclusive, supportive STEM community by helping students, faculty, and staff collaboratively develop a framework to understand and navigate diverse identities in the classroom, lab, and beyond.

Offered at Amherst College, Yale, Williams, Mt. Holyoke, University of Utah, Davidson, DePauw, University of Rhode Island, SOKA University of America, Macalester, Skidmore, Hamline, Pomona, and Sewanee University of the South, this project-based course model can be adapted to empower students to investigate issues of racism and equity in STEM through combining academic inquiry with lasting community engagement on any campus.

The HSTEM Book

Cover of the book "Being Human in STEM, Partnering with Students to Shape Inclusive Practices and Communities". By Authors, Sarah L. Bunnell, Sheila S. Jaswal, and Megan B. Lyster. Foreword by Tracie Marcella Addy

“Faculty often ask me how they can make students feel like they really belong in STEM and excel in courses. After reading this book, the answer is crystal clear – allow them to bring their whole selves to the environment thereby eliminating the need to ignore any part of their humanity. This book is a treasure trove of information for making STEM (or any environment) more inclusive by partnering with students to make it happen.”

Becky Wai-Ling Packard, Professor of Psychology and Education, Mount Holyoke, and author of Successful STEM Mentoring Initiatives

Our book, Being Human in STEM, provides STEM faculty, administrators, and educators with sustainable strategies to create inclusive environments in undergraduate STEM education, particularly for students who have historically felt unwelcome in these spaces. Centered on the Being Human in STEM (HSTEM) Initiative, the book offers a framework for partnering with students to foster belonging and promote success in STEM. Born out of student protests at Amherst College advocating for racial justice, HSTEM has become a transformative model for inclusive change in STEM classrooms and programs nationwide. In this book, we share practical tools, including course materials, reflective questions, and facilitator guides, to help educators implement HSTEM principles and make incremental, sustainable changes to their teaching and institutional culture. Through reflection, collaboration, and active listening, this model empowers educators and students to build a more inclusive STEM ecosystem.

Learn more and/or purchase the book.

Project Inspiration

The idea for this project grew out of discussions between Dr. Sheila Jaswal (Professor of Chemistry at Amherst College) and her students in November 2015 during a time of momentous change on campus. The school had just spent four days participating in an intensive sit-in at Frost Library, discussing the pain and marginalization universally felt by students of color on campus. This sit-in movement, titled the Amherst Uprising, was attended by faculty and students alike.

After hearing from STEM students involved in the uprising, Dr. Jaswal asked for students to share their experiences. She was interested in how students were experiencing Amherst’s STEM classes, office hours, labs, and approach to curriculum and students. Their responses were more revealing than she could have ever anticipated. The voices of these students have served as the inspiration for our course:

“I have always felt a sort of ‘impostor syndrome’ being a woman of color in STEM…It can feel disillusioning and disheartening to feel like you are up against the best and the brightest, groomed by professional parents, amazing high schools, and resources like tutors and feeling like you have nothing to show for why you are in the sphere of STEM besides your passion and interest.”

Project Mission

The “Being Human in STEM” initiative aims to empower students, staff, and faculty to reshape their classrooms, laboratories, and departments to create an inclusive and equitable STEM community that enables humans of all identities to thrive as agents of change.

The HSTEM initiative at Amherst, centered around the annual HSTEM course, has grown into a multifaceted program fostering equity and inclusion in STEM. In addition to the course, HSTEM hosts faculty and staff gatherings to celebrate inclusive STEM successes, organizes an annual academic salon, collaborates with multiple campus resource centers, and serves as a hub connecting students, staff, and faculty dedicated to building an equitable STEM community.

Our website provides various resources to facilitate “Being Human in STEM” projects, ranging from an inclusive curricular practice handbook, short workshops, and student-created resources to semester-long courses at colleges and universities nationwide.

The HSTEM network has grown to include a dozen other institutions offering “Being Human in STEM”, four regional HSTEM summits and a national NSF i-USE grant Being Human in STEM conference. As HSTEM continues to grow, we look to form sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships with any parties dedicated to furthering equity and empathy within STEM and beyond.

View the Nov. 19, 2020, Five Years of Being Human in STEM at Amherst & Beyond Celebration during Amherst’s Bicentennial Celebration for more information.

Please contact us at beinghumaninstem@gmail.com with any inquiries and/or to foster a partnership.


Documentary: The Voices of the Pioneers

Created by Maeve McNamara’19

Publications

Forsythe D, Jaswal SS, Dewsbury B, McGowan S.  Editorial: Centering humanism in STEM education. Front. Educ. 2024  9:1477520. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1477520

Schmalzbauer L, Jaswal SS, Coráñez Bolton S, Bunnell SL, Trapani JG. “Critical Empathy in the Liberal Arts: The Sociological Imagination as a Mechanism for Re-envisioning Interdisciplinary STEM Education” chapter in  edited volume Roadmap for Humanities & Social Sciences in STEM Higher Education Sage Publishing 2024.

Being Human in STEM: Partnering with Students to Shape Inclusive Practices and Communities. (n.d.). Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved December 2, 2024, from https://www.routledge.com/Being-Human-in-STEM-Partnering-with-Students-to-Shape-Inclusive-Practices-and-Communities/Bunnell-Jaswal-Lyster/p/book/9781642672299

Jaswal SS. Lessons from a Quarter Century of Being Human in STEM. Protein Science 2022; 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1002/pro.4278

Bunnell, S., Lyster, M., Greenland, K., Mayer, G., Gardner, K., Leise, T., Kristensen, T., Ryan, E. D., Ampiah-Bonney, R., & Jaswal, S. S. (2021). From protest to progress through partnership with students: Being Human in STEM (HSTEM). International Journal for Students As Partners5(1), 26-56.

Jaswal S. (2019) Being Human in STEM: Moving from Student Protest to Institutional Progress. Diversity & Democracy, 22 (1), 
21-24. Featured on the cover and in editor’s note.