On April 28, 2025, a major power outage affected millions across Spain, Portugal and parts of southern France due to what authorities described as a “.” Although the exact cause was not immediately confirmed, concerns quickly arose about the possibility of a cyberattack. Such trepidation highlights how in today’s interconnected world, something as simple as a phishing email can trigger a chain reaction that jeopardizes the safety and well-being of millions.

Recognizing the exponentially growing importance of cybersecurity, the College of Arts and Sciences’ (A&S’)����(Forensics Institute) offers a ��in partnership with the����(iSchool). This program is designed to equip future professionals with the critical skills needed to safeguard sensitive information and infrastructure while holding malicious actors accountable. The M.S. blends courses in digital forensics, cybersecurity and data analytics with advanced forensic science and crime scene investigation.

What Are Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics?

While closely interconnected, these disciplines represent proactive and reactive approaches to managing digital threats. Whereas cybersecurity focuses on preventing attacks and protecting digital infrastructure, digital forensics is concerned with investigating breaches in established cybersecurity and identifying the cause, scope and perpetrators of the attack.

With digital evidence now central to over 90% of criminal cases, as reported in the��, the program equips students for careers in cybersecurity, digital investigations and intelligence analysis. They also gain hands-on experience through fieldwork at top-tier facilities, including federal agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense, along with various crime laboratories and prosecutor’s offices.

Learning from Leaders in Cybersecurity

A key strength of the program is the access students have to faculty who are actively engaged in cutting-edge, practical research. A prime example is��, courtesy research professor and adjunct professor of forensics who also received a master’s degree in forensic science from A&S and a Ph.D. in cybersecurity from the Federal University of Technology Paraná in Brazil. When not teaching courses at Syracuse, he is conducting international research with organizations like the Brazilian Army at the Military Institute of Engineering.

“We focus on developing advanced simulated environments that can replicate everything from energy substations to entire distribution systems,” says Lemos about his current work. “These environments allow us to simulate cyberattacks and study system and device behavior, including the integration of physical equipment.”

Over the past decade, Lemos says the significant rise in attacks on critical infrastructure, such as the����in 2015 and the����in 2021, which significantly affected fuel supply to the U.S. East Coast, emphasize the growing need for highly trained professionals to work in both prevention and incident response.

Ensuring Grid Resilience

Lemos’ work in Brazil involves safeguarding that country’s power supply by exploring how systems react before, during and after an incident—without the risks or costs associated with testing real infrastructure.

“These simulations help uncover vulnerabilities, assess system resilience and evaluate the effectiveness of various detection and defense mechanisms. They also support the development of robust incident response plans and recovery protocols,” Lemos says. In turn, he brings this expertise and a deeper, more practical understanding of how to protect critical systems into the classroom at Syracuse, enriching the learning experience for students.

In his course, Computational Forensics, students are introduced to cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. These tools are vital in the field of cybersecurity to sift through vast amounts of network traffic data to detect unusual patterns. By tackling practical forensic problems, students develop both the technical expertise and an analytical mindset essential for careers in cybersecurity and digital investigations.

Lemos sees sharing the professional knowledge he’s gained as a meaningful way to give back, recognizing the pivotal role his A&S education played in shaping his career.

“My education at Syracuse University was foundational to the work I do today,” he says. “The combination of strong theoretical grounding and hands-on experience—guided by professors who are both researchers and practitioners—gave me the tools to engage with real-world cybersecurity challenges. I’m grateful for the opportunity to support students as they prepare for impactful careers in high-stakes fields like military operations and critical infrastructure systems.”

By combining rigorous academic instruction with applied learning and direct engagement with faculty leading global initiatives, the Forensics Institute equips students to confront today’s complex digital threats. This integrated approach aligns with the University’s and A&S’s priorities of preparing students for careers in emerging and innovative technologies.

The advanced media management master’s program in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications has received STEM designation, placing it among a select group of graduate programs nationwide that blend media, technology and business strategy under the federal classification for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Syracuse University Libraries is accepting spring applications from graduate and undergraduate students for the����grant now through Friday, March 28, 2025, at 5 p.m. Interested applicants can access the����online or e-mail��OrangeInnovation@syr.edu��to request an application package.

Grants up to $5,000 per award will be made, with a total of up to $50,000 per academic year based on the merit of applications. The Orange Innovation Fund supports student research initiatives emerging from campus innovation programs. The grant ‘concept to commercialization’ fund is designed to help move student research or scholarly projects from ideation to proof of concept to commercialization. Initial funding from the program came from a gift to the Libraries from Raj-Ann Rekhi Gill ’98, a member of the University Board of Trustees.

The program is administered through Syracuse University Libraries, in collaboration with the University’s research and commercialization programs such as the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (SOURCE), the Blackstone LaunchPad, Couri Hatchery, Invent@SU, NEXIS, the Innovation Law Center, the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program at Syracuse, Intelligence ++, Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental Energy Systems, the Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering at Syracuse University (NYSTAR designated Center for Advanced Technology), the Startup Garage at the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, and the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families. Applicants can also come directly through research classes, labs or independent study programs across the University.

Student applicants must identify specific tangible needs related to the product, service or technology they are developing. Grants will support defined projects over a clear period with identified outcomes that will help move a research project or innovative venture toward proof of concept toward commercialization.

Linda Dickerson Hartsock, advisor, Strategic Initiatives, is available to help coach applicants through the process and can be scheduled for sessions on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons by emailing��ldhart01@syr.edu.

An interdisciplinary team of research faculty and alumni experts will review applications. Following the review process, announcements and award letters will be made in mid-April.

Seven students teams were the��Fall 2024 winners of Orange Innovation Fund awards.��Nine student teams were the��

The creator of the term “bio art,” an expressive form that interprets scientific principles and concepts through artistic installations, exhibitions and performances, is the keynote speaker for the University’s annual in the Sciences and Humanities.

, an internationally recognized contemporary artist and poet, will speak on��, at 4:30 p.m. in the Life Sciences Complex atrium. His talk, “Rockets for the Sake of Poetry,” will feature highlights of his 40-year artistic career, his development of bio art and insights about his space artworks. This year’s lecture is hosted by the and its research focus group.

‘Bio Art’ Developer

Kac uses biotechnology and genetics to create and explore scientific techniques. In the early 1980s he created digital, holographic and online works that anticipated today’s global culture of information that is constantly in flux. In 1997, he coined the term “bio art,” which launched a new art form.

Among his famous works are the transgenic rabbit , for which he used and a jellyfish protein to create a live rabbit that glows a fluorescent green color under blue light.��In “,” he combined his own��DNA with that of a petunia flower to form a new “plantimal.”

His pieces have been shown around the world and, in one��instance, out of this world: his , “,” was . Kac’s “” was also realized in outer space with assistance from French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

His career also spans poetry, performance, drawing, printmaking, photography, artist’s books, early digital and online works, holography, telepresence and space art. He is a professor of art and technology at the and a Ph.D. research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Interactive Arts at the University of Wales in Newport, Wales.

BioInspired Focus

As an institute for material and living systems, BioInspired hosts researchers who examine topics in complex biological systems and develop and design programmable smart materials to address global challenges in health, medicine and materials innovation. They include faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars from life sciences, engineering, physics and chemistry who work in three focus areas: �� and��

Last year, the institute added a fourth focus area, Posthumanities: Arts and Sciences, to push the boundaries of traditional scientific inquiry through activities and collaborations between the arts and humanities and the science-based disciplines.

The Posthumanities’ focus area coleaders, Boryana Rossa, of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and G. Douglas Barrett, of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, spearheaded the proposal to invite Kac as the 2024 Wali Lecture keynote. They worked with BioInspired leaders Jay Henderson, institute director; Heidi Hehnly-Chang, associate director, and Jeremy Steinbacher, operations director.

The Wali Lecture represents a partnership of the Department of and the Syracuse University . It is part of the 2024-25 Syracuse Symposium “.”

The lecture was established in 2008 by his daughters to commemorate Wali’s vision and leadership to recognize their parents’ dedication and contributions to the University and the greater community. Wali was the Steele Professor of Physics Emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences and internationally recognized as a theorist for research on the symmetry properties of fundamental particles and their interactions, as well as for his work as an author. He joined the University in 1969. He previously was at Harvard and Northwestern Universities, the University of Chicago, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in France and the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Italy. As a fellow of the American Physical Society, whose India Chapter named him Scientist of the Year in 2022, he received Syracuse’s Chancellor’s Citation for exceptional academic achievement and was one of the founding members of the .

Syracuse University Libraries is accepting fall 2024 applications for the grant now through Friday, Sept. 27, at 5 p.m. Interested applicants should plan to attend one of the information and proposal/grant writing workshops on Sept. 10, 11 or 12.

The Orange Innovation Fund supports student research initiatives emerging from campus innovation programs. The grant ‘concept to commercialization’ fund is designed to help move graduate and undergraduate student research or scholarly projects from ideation to proof of concept to commercialization. Initial funding from the program came from a gift to the Libraries from Raj-Ann Rekhi Gill ’98, a member of the University Board of Trustees.

Grants up to $5,000 per award will be made, with a total of up to $50,000 per academic year based on the merit of applications.

The program is administered through Syracuse University Libraries, in collaboration with the University’s research and commercialization programs such as the�� (SOURCE), the��,��, ,��, the��, the����at Syracuse,��,��, the����(NYSTAR designated Center for Advanced Technology) and the��. Applicants can also come directly through research classes, labs or independent study programs across the University.

Student applicants must identify specific tangible needs related to the product, service, technology or creative work they are developing. Grants will support defined projects over a clear timeframe with identified outcomes that will help move a research project or innovative venture toward proof of concept toward commercialization.

A prerequisite to applying is attendance at one of the proposal writing workshops being offered by Linda Dickerson Hartsock, advisor, strategic initiatives Syracuse University Libraries, and former founding director of the Blackstone LaunchPad. Students should attend one of the following workshops to create a successful application:

• Tuesday, September 10, from 3 to 4 p.m. in Bird Library
• Wednesday, September 11, from 3 to 4 p.m. in Couri Hatchery, Whitman Room 116
• Thursday, September 12, from 3 to 4 p.m. Hybrid in Bird Library or via

Dickerson Hartsock is also available to help coach applicants through the process and can be scheduled for sessions on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons by emailing ldhart01@syr.edu.

Applications are due Friday, September 27, by 5 p.m. to Syracuse University Libraries. For a link to the application or to register for a workshop, please e-mail orangeinnovation@syr.edu to indicate your interest in the program.

Following a cross-campus committee review process, announcements and award letters will be made in October.

Nine student teams were the

, a renowned computer scientist who received an honorary degree during the University’s Commencement in May, died June 9 in Michigan. She was 86.

Conway, who revolutionized global information technology by inventing methods for designing Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) silicon chips, was at Syracuse University on May 12 to receive an honorary doctor of science degree.

As a young engineer at IBM Research in the 1960s, Conway made pioneering innovations in computer architecture. IBM fired her in 1968 upon learning she was undergoing gender transition. She restarted her career in a new identity in “stealth-mode” after completing her transition.

While working at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s, Conway innovated breakthrough methods that enabled engineers to design very powerful, complex chips. In 1980, Conway’s seminal textbook��“Introduction to VLSI Systems,” co-authored by Caltech Professor Carver Mead, became an instant classic, forever transforming computing and information technology.��The late John V. Oldfield, then a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS), brought the new VLSI methods to Syracuse right at the beginning of that revolution.

In the early 1980s, Conway became assistant director for strategic computing at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In 1985 she joined the University of Michigan as professor of electrical engineering and computer science and associate dean of engineering.

When nearing retirement in 1999 she began quietly coming out as a trans woman, using her new����to share her story with friends and colleagues. Conway became active in transgender advocacy.

“Lynn made this world a better place in so many ways. Her work on VLSI revolutionized microelectronic education and manufacturing, and her advocacy for women and transgender people was courageous and important,” says ECS Dean Cole Smith. “She was a role model to many, and she helped to broaden the image of what an engineer or a computer scientist looks like. I am incredibly grateful that we had the chance to honor her at Syracuse University and recognize her for the tremendous impact she made.”

In 2012 Conway published a��memoir��that revealed how—closeted and hidden behind the scenes—she conceived the ideas and orchestrated the events that disruptively changed global industries.

Conway was a life fellow of the IEEE, fellow of the AAAS, winner of Computer Pioneer Award of the IEEE Computer Society, member of the Hall of Fellows of the Computer History Museum, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and held several honorary degrees. In 2023 she was inducted into the����for the invention of VLSI. She was awarded the����by the����and the��.

In 2020, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna����on behalf of the company for����back in 1968.����the IBM Lifetime Achievement Award.

An award-winning journalist, a hall of fame basketball coach, a nationally recognized library conservationist, a global financial executive and a renowned computer scientist will be recognized with honorary degrees from Syracuse University at the 2024 Commencement on Sunday, May 12, at the JMA Wireless Dome.

Hilton Als, writer at The New Yorker; Jim Boeheim ’66, G’73, former Syracuse men’s basketball coach and special assistant to the director of athletics; husband and wife, William “Bill” Brodsky ’65, L’68, chairman of a specialized investment firm and an investment management firm, and Joan Breier Brodsky ’67, G’68, a National Museum and Library Services Board member; and Lynn Conway, inventor of methods for designing Very Large Scale Integrated silicon chips, will be honored for their outstanding achievements in their professional careers and the difference they have made in the lives of others.

Hilton Als
Doctor of Letters

Als is an award-winning journalist, critic and curator. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1994. Prior to The New Yorker, Als was a staff writer for the Village Voice and an editor-at-large at Vibe. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (2017), Yale’s Windham-Campbell Literature Prize (2016), the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism (2002-03) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2000).

His first book, “The Women,” was published in 1996. His next book, “White Girls,” was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the winner of the Lambda Literary Award in 2014. His most recent book, “My Pinup,” a meditation on love and of loss, of Prince and of desire, was published in November 2022.

In 2017, he curated the critically lauded exhibition “Alice Neel, Uptown,” which traveled from David Zwirner, New York, to Victoria Miro, London and Venice. In 2019, Als presented “God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin” at David Zwirner, New York, followed by Frank Moore at, David Zwirner, New York (2021) and Toni Morrison’s “Black Book,” at David Zwirner, New York (2022). He curated a series of three successive exhibitions for the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, of the work of Celia Paul (2018), Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (2019) and Njideka Akunyili Crosby (2022). In 2022, he curated “Joan Didion: What She Means” at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, which traveled to the Perez Art Museum Miami in 2023. He curated Jared Buckhiester “No heaven, no how,” which opened March 2024 at the David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles.

Als is currently a teaching professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and has also taught at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, Princeton University, Wesleyan University and the Yale School of Drama.

Jim Boeheim ’66, G’73
Doctor of Humane Letters

Hall of Fame member Jim Boeheim had a remarkable run as head coach at his alma mater, Syracuse University. Boeheim guided the Orange to winning records in 46 of 47 campaigns. Syracuse made 35 trips into the NCAA Tournament, including Final Four appearances in 1987, 1996, 2003, 2013 and 2016. The Orange won the national championship in 2003. Boeheim retired from coaching after the 2023 season but continues to work for the University.

Boeheim was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005. He was also honored with the John R. Wooden “Legends of Coaching” Award.

Boeheim enrolled at Syracuse in 1962 and was a walk-on with the basketball team. The Orange were 22-6 overall his senior year and earned the program’s second-ever NCAA Tournament berth. He earned a bachelor’s from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and a master’s from the Maxwell School. In 1969 he turned to a career in coaching and was hired as a graduate assistant at Syracuse. In 1976, he was named head coach.

A four-time BIG EAST Coach of the Year, Boeheim has been honored as NABC District II Coach of the Year 10 times and USBWA District II Coach of the Year on four occasions. In the fall of 2000, he received Syracuse University’s Arents Award, the school’s highest alumni honor.

Boeheim was named 2001 USA Basketball National Coach of the Year. He has served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic teams that won gold medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016, and the World Cup in 2010 and 2014.

A champion of many charitable causes, Boeheim and his wife started the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation with the goal of enriching the lives of kids in need.

Joan Breier Brodsky ’67, G’68
Doctor of Humane Letters

Joan Brodsky graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1967 with a bachelor’s in Latin language and literature and went on to graduate from the School of Information Studies (formerly the School of Library Science) in 1968 with a master of science degree.

Joan is passionate and knowledgeable about rare book and cultural heritage conservation and has been active nationally for many years, including sitting on the board of the Newberry Library in Chicago, as a Trustee for the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Library, as well as the library advisory board of the Jewish Theological Seminary. She also served on the Advisory Board for the School of Information Studies and has been a member of the Syracuse University Libraries Advisory Board since its founding.

In 2022, Joan was appointed by President Joe Biden to the National Museum and Library Services Board, which advises the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the largest federal funder of America’s museums, libraries and related organizations through grantmaking, research and policy development.

At Syracuse University, she is the founder and sponsor of the Brodsky Series for Advancement of Library Conservation. This sponsored program promotes and advances knowledge of library conservation theory, practice and application among wide audiences, both on campus, in the region and now online. This is an annual lecture series and workshop on book and paper conservation now in its 19th year.

In 2022, she and her husband Bill, a Syracuse University life trustee, funded the Conservation Lab in the Bird library and the Joan Breier Brodsky Media Preservation Vault in honor of Joan’s commitment to the preservation and conservation at the Bird Library.

Joan and Bill have been married for 57 years and reside in Chicago.

William “Bill” Brodsky ’65, L’68
Doctor of Laws

Bill is chairman of Cedar Street Asset Management, LLC, an investment management firm devoted to investing in equity securities in international markets, and chairman of Bosun Asset Management, a specialized investment firm.

During his combined 35-year career at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), he was recognized as a global leader in the development of the future and options markets. His contributions to Chicago’s futures and options markets were a major factor in Chicago’s becoming the world’s preeminent city for the futures and options markets.

Bill served as chairman of the CBOE Holdings Inc. now known as CBOE Global Markets and its predecessor firms between 1997 and 2017. He also served as the chief executive officer of the CBOE from 1997 to 2013. During his CBOE tenure, he served as the chairman of the World Federation of Exchanges and the International Options Market Association. From 1985 to 1997, he was president and CEO at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Bill, who earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School and a law degree from the College of Law, began his career in 1968 at the Wall Street-based investment banking and securities brokerage firm of Model, Roland and Co. Inc. In 1974, he joined the American Stock Exchange and ultimately was executive vice president for operations.

In 1982, he became executive vice president and chief operating officer of the CME. In 1985, he was appointed president and CEO of the CME.

In 2019, Governor J.B. Pritzker named him to co-chair the newly formed State’s Pension Consolidation Feasibility Task Force. In 2022, he was inducted into “The Order of Lincoln,” the state’s highest honor for professional achievement and public service.

Brodsky is chair emeritus of the board of directors of Navy Pier Inc., one of Chicago’s most iconic cultural destinations, and past chair of the board of directors of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Brodsky was nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2022 to the Board of Directors of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which maintains a special reserve fund authorized by Congress to help investors at failed brokerage firms.

Lynn Conway
Doctor of Science

Conway is a renowned computer scientist who revolutionized global information technology by inventing methods for designing Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) silicon chips. Her work paved the way for the powerful microchips that animate modern high-technology systems.

As a young engineer at IBM Research in the 1960s, Conway made pioneering innovations in computer architecture. Sadly, IBM fired her in 1968 upon learning she was undergoing gender transition. She restarted her career in a new identity in “stealth-mode” after completing her transition.

While working at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s, Conway innovated breakthrough methods that enabled engineers to design very powerful, complex chips. In 1980, Conway’s seminal textbook “Introduction to VLSI Systems,” co-authored by Caltech Professor Carver Mead, became an instant classic, forever transforming computing and information technology. Professor John V. Oldfield brought the new VLSI methods into Syracuse right at the beginning of that revolution.

In the early 1980s, Conway became assistant director for strategic computing at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In 1985 she joined the University of Michigan as professor of electrical engineering and computer science and associate dean of engineering.

When nearing retirement in 1999 she began quietly coming out as a trans woman, using her new to share her story with friends and colleagues. Conway became active in transgender advocacy.

In 2012 Conway published a that revealed how—closeted and hidden behind the scenes—she conceived the ideas and orchestrated the events that disruptively changed global industries.

Conway is a life fellow of the IEEE, fellow of the AAAS, winner of Computer Pioneer Award of the IEEE Computer Society, member of the Hall of Fellows of the Computer History Museum, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and holds five honorary degrees. In 2023 she was inducted into the for the invention of VLSI. She was awarded the by the and the .

In 2020, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna on behalf of the company for back in 1968. the IBM Lifetime Achievement Award.

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A group of faculty and graduate students are part of a growing movement in academia that is re-evaluating long-held assumptions about research design.

Critical Quantitative Theory seeks to disrupt the traditional dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative research methods, with the former typically assumed to be more rigorous and suited to “hard” sciences and the latter seen as more subjective and better suited for use with critical theoretical perspectives. By disrupting this dichotomy, CritQuant—sometimes called QuantCrit—seeks to use data and statistics in a more equitable way, arguing that by doing so, it might become a useful and more racially just method of examining social justice questions.

Introduced in a 2018 Race Ethnicity and Education journal article—“”—this method calls on education researchers to explore inequity by examining data sets and statistics through critical analytical frameworks, such as critical race theory (CRT), intersectionality and feminism.

At the School of Education, an interdisciplinary team of faculty and graduate students has been meeting twice a month—since spring 2023—as the Critical Quantitative Research Forum. Among its original members are , associate professor of reading and language arts; , associate professor of higher education; , associate professor of counseling and human services; , associate professor of quantitative research methodology; , associate professor of teaching and leadership; and doctoral student ParKer Bryant, a Lender Center for Social Justice Fellow.

Change and Possibility

“There is a primacy to quantitative data because it is seen as objective, so its findings have a privileged status,” says Professor Johnson. “Some people tend to trust quantitative data and see it as more valid than qualitative research methods, such as ethnographies, interviews or case studies.”

One reason for this paradigm, explains Johnson, is that in qualitative research, the researcher is the “instrument” that gathers data, through an interview or by analyzing texts “as opposed to a quantitative instrument, such as a survey that is analyzed by software.” Thus, the quantitative researcher is assumed to be impartial and their experiences or beliefs irrelevant. That assumption has sometimes cloaked biased research and conclusions, as with the widely criticized 1994 study .

“If quantitative research is the privileged approach, then it needs to be transformed if we are going to work toward equity,” Johnson says. “We can’t put all the work of addressing critical equity questions on qualitative researchers, so how can we use statistics to tell the story of social justice, point out inequities and put forward ideas of change and possibility that illuminate and address structural inequalities? I’ve been thinking about this since I was a grad student.”

A Challenging Space

As a current doctoral student, Bryant is researching the impact of academic language on creative thought. It’s a topic traditionally suited to qualitative methods, such as interviews, surveys and ethnography, she says. However, she became interested in CritQuant “because I wanted to explore my research question thoroughly. I’m already familiar with qualitative research, but I want to understand quantitative methods such as linear and advanced statistical models. There’s no reason not to know quantitative models.”

The research forum is collegial, Bryant observes. “What I tell my friends is that faculty really want to be there, so it feels as if you are having high intellectual conversation among colleagues. It’s a challenging space.”

Bryant was invited by the faculty members to join an internal grant project that continues the forum’s work.

“How Can Educational Inequities Caused by Racial Wealth Gap Be Reduced? A Critical Quantitative Analysis of Individual, Home, and School” is using quantitative methods to examine whether individual or institutional-level factors have a greater influence on “the mediated relationships among socioeconomic status, opportunity to learn and students’ learning outcomes.”

“This study aims to contribute to advancing quantitative methods in educational research using the CritQuant framework based on critical race theory and intersectionality,” writes principal investigator Jang. “We believe that educational scholars would benefit from our work in considering CritQuant as a racially just method.”

Peeling Back Assumptions

Given her scholarly work focuses on the effects of campus climate on the sense of belonging of students of color in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, Johnson is well-situated to critique the quantitative vs. qualitative dichotomy.

The reason why qualitative research is appropriate for answering questions of social justice is that “it can tap into communities the way that other research can’t, by asking about lived experiences or centering marginalized and minoritized voices,” she says.

Conversely, quantitative research is seen as not amenable to social justice work because statistics can be used to advance and explain non-equitable conclusions, as in “The Bell Curve.” “The history and restrictions of quantitative methods are seen as having limited value in an equity agenda. Folks like myself, trained in quantitative methods, are trying to figure out ways to use statistical research methods within critical frameworks such as CRT.”

One technique to make quantitative research more equity-minded—“positionality”—dispenses with the idea that the researcher is impartial. “CritQuant forces researchers to position themselves in the research and asks them to consider their biases and subjectivity,” Johnson says. “Research questions arise from somewhere, after all.”

Johnson says her research interests often return her to when she was director of minority student affairs at Worcester (Massachusetts) Polytechnic Institute, supporting Black, Latinx and Indigenous students. “That experience created lots of questions for me, and I often think back to the challenges my students had,” Johnson says.

“My experiences as a Black woman working at primarily white institutions frames where I’m coming from in my research, and CritQuant makes me reckon with that,” Johnson says. “Qualitative researchers are expected to do this work, so why aren’t quantitative researchers expected to do the same? We encourage our doctoral students to write out their positionality in their research design, in order to peel back assumptions of unbias and objectivity.”

Structures and Systems

Another technique is embedded in the CritQuant forum’s grant project and speaks directly to why the method has the power to transform educational research.

“Quantitative research often can situate deficits on the people being studied, whereas CritQuant research can be used to examine structures,” says Johnson. “In other words, we’ve spent a lot of time trying to fix the student, but critical quantitative research has the power to examine whether outcome differences might be environmental or institutional. Maybe we don’t need to fix the student but instead look at fixing the structures and systems.”

As education graduate students ask more questions about how to integrate CritQuant into their research topics, the research forum is becoming a space where faculty can share their own experiences and challenges, such as how to use quantitative methods with subject groups that are small in number or how to incentivize participation ethically.

“I research groups that are already minoritized on campuses,” Johnson says, “so when researching campus climate, I have to be able to overcome survey fatigue and build relationships in order to ask questions about racism and sexism. There is an extra labor required on the part of the researcher.”

Johnson sums up the work of the research forum as enacting the “critical” part of Critical Quantitative Theory. “It’s exciting to engage with faculty and graduate students in an informal way to sort that out.”