National Science Foundation awards $3.2 million for Yale prof's documentary to 'empower' black scientists
A Yale professor has received a $3.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation that will go toward creating a documentary detailing the struggles of black scientists.
In August, the federal agency selected Yale's Thomas Allen Harris to produce a new documentary, 'My Mom, The Scientist.'
A Yale University professor has received a $3.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation that will go toward creating a documentary detailing the struggles of black scientists.
In August, the federal agency selected Yale’s Thomas Allen Harris to produce a new documentary, My Mom, The Scientist. The funding is being issued as a joint project between Harris’ “Family Pictures Institute for Inclusive Storytelling” and the New York Hall of Science.
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“Why, after all of these years — the Civil Rights Movement, affirmative action, numerous studies and actions by governments, academia and corporations — have we made such little progress with regards to African American representation in the sciences?” Harris recently told The Yale Daily News.
In September, Harris stated that, “This NSF grant is the largest grant the Family Pictures Institute has gotten for any single project, and it’s also going to support the national storytelling campaign we plan to do around African American participation in science and elevating those stories.”
The professor has indicated that his hope is for the documentary to “empower” more black students to pursue work in the STEM fields.
“There are a myriad of Black scientists whose stories and contributions to society have been obscured,” Harris also told The Yale Daily News. “We need to share these stories to fight ‘stereotype threat’ and empower Black students to feel they have a place in science.”
According to his university biography, Harris serves as a Professor in the Practice Yale Film and Media Studies and African American Studies.
”Harris’ new projects include a film exploring his mother’s career as a chemistry professor and examining the unique challenges facing African Americans pursuing careers in STEM, and a film about the untold story BIPOC activism in the 1980’s around HIV/Aids and the queer creative renaissance,” the web page reads.
In recent years, the National Science Foundation has awarded various grants that advance left-wing ideologies.
In October, the Pratt Institute in New York received $2 million from the agency in order to offer programming on “climate literacy” and “climate justice.”
In August, Louisiana State University announced that the agency was issuing a $4.5 million grant for the school to establish a new “equity center” to combat bias against black and Hispanic faculty members.
A recent report from the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has also stated that 27 percent of National Science Foundation grants go toward promoting DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) ideology.