Research focus

Diversity Assessment at Portland State (DAPS)

Key Indicator B3. Extent to which research at PSU focuses on diversity.

 

 

As an urban public research university, the diversity that surrounds us is a focus for faculty, staff, and student research. To our knowledge, no institutional research has been done to attempt to measure the extent to which this is so. We might, for instance, look at the percentage of Portland State's total federal research funding that is granted to investigate issues of diversity; or count the number of Portland State researchers who are focused on diversity issues. One complication in doing this is the difficulty of defining what makes a research project "diversity related." That definition would differ depending on who was doing the research and why.

 

The difficulties inherent in such work are illustrated by our own recent diversity audit of Portland State theses and dissertations. To date, that is all we have to offer as evidence related to Key Indicator B3.

 

 

Written by Martha Balshem. Please e-mail comments to diversity@pdx.edu.