Gender-driven Institutional Change: Advancing Women at Historically Male Dominated Technological Organizations Through Collaborative Research Networks
(Organizational and Co-authorship Networks Research Initiatives) – Funded by a $478,147 grant from the National Science Foundation of the USA – Consultant, 2010-2012.
The Social Media Lab is collaborating with the ADVANCE Program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) to study gender-driven institutional change using social networks analysis, co-authorship networks and network visualizations. The goal of this project is to identify ways to reduce the isolation of women in historically male dominated technological organizations. Using an innovative combination of bibliometric data-mining and social network mapping, NJIT ADVANCE researchers will introduce a “GPS System for Career Management” that will make it easier for faculty to locate potential interdisciplinary research collaborators and to take snapshots of their professional networks as they develop over time. A component of such a GPS System is a version of rDmap(Research Discovery Map). This and other NJIT ADVANCE initiatives will provide new knowledge, tools, and strategies that universities across the country can use to spot blockages in information flow, identify emerging leaders, and identify and support best practices in career development and mentoring for early-stage female faculty members.