Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2008. / "Publication number: AAT 3323038 ."

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Sociology, June 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Factors that influenced African Americans to persist or not persist within their scientific major while matriculating at a predominantly White university guided the focus of this study. The study explored the perceptions of African Americans that were both persistent and non-persistent within with their scientific major in order to gain a better understanding of what steps could be taken for the retention and encouragement of more African Americans in these fields at a predominantly White university. The study explored other factors besides intelligence that inhibited or promoted the success of African Americans in scientific fields. The study was qualitative in nature and participant interviews provided the data for the study. Actor network theory was used as a theoretical framework for exploring the factors that caused students to persist or not persist within a scientific major with the major implications of the study being: (1) The persistence of students had more to do with the open and closed networks they participated in rather than their intellect; (2) The student development of networks aligned with their ability to overcome the negative images associated with them in science; (3) Students’ development of closed networks were a means of protection. / Ph. D.

Since the close of WWII, higher education has been central to the growth of U.S. science, but the role of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)has been under-explored within this narrative. The nation s 105 HBCUs constitute less than one percent of the U.S. higher education community, but consistently have served as a major conduit for the production of African Americans in the sciences, technology, mathematics and engineering. National Science Foundation data reflect an average 29 percent share for the period 1994-2001. The output is even more striking when examined by degrees awarded in disciplinary clusters 50 percent in the agricultural sciences, 45 percent in the physical sciences and mathematics, and 42 percent in the biological sciences. This research explores the role of HBCUs in educating African Americans in science from the boosterism period shortly following World War II, through affirmative action legislation of the 1960s and 1970s, and concluding with current federal policies. A particular analysis is undertaken of Spelman College, a private liberal arts college founded by New England missionaries in the South during the late 19th century as a seminary for former slave women and girls. Spelman presents a unique case to analyze the particularistic characteristics of race, gender and institutional setting within the context of a so-called normative structure of science. Over a 25-year period, Spelman was able to rise beyond the structural limitations of its position as a Black college, a women's college, and a southern college to become one of the single most productive undergraduate institution for African American women earning the baccalaureate degree in science. What new perspectives might the Spelman story specifically and the history of HBCUs generally offer about the history of U.S. science, the notion that careers be open to talent, and current public policy discourse regarding efforts to increase the participation of under-represented racial minorities and women in science, engineering and mathematics? My thesis is that it is the politics of particularlism, not an ideal of universalism, that has fundamentally determined who participates in science and has had a significant impact on HBCUs. Despite these constraints, the contributions that these institutions have made to the U.S. scientific workforce have been enormous.