Rather than petri dishes or microscopes, in Brie Tripp’s lab you’ll find diverse undergrads gathered around laptops, carrying out the lab’s unique mandate of studying how to promote social and racial justice in science classrooms.
Social justice remains a rare topic in STEM — something Tripp, an assistant professor of teaching in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, or NPB, said she hopes to change. “Science doesn’t need to be taught in isolation,” she said. “Because it is all about humans. If you don’t understand how your position can influence research decisions, it can be extremely biased. Science benefits from the awareness of how it has perpetuated disparities and how it can be leveraged to mitigate them.”
Tripp’s approach is multilayered and innovative. Members of her lab develop extensive case studies about the physiology of health disparities in underserved populations, such as higher maternal mortality among Black women and diabetes in the Native American population. They then gather feedback from affected communities and make recommendations for future advocacy.
The kicker? These Social Justice in Science case studies become part of the curriculum for students in Tripp’s NPB 110C physiology class. Tripp, her undergraduate researchers and community partners with lived experience of injustice thus co-create a collaborative learning model in which they shape socially aware content that their undergraduate peers engage with immediately, driving wider awareness of equity in science education.
Bringing Social Justice into STEM
Many students hear discussion of how social injustice can affect basic physiological processes for the first time in Tripp’s class. Alex Pulido, a fourth-year, first-generation pre-med student, was so struck by them in 110C that he joined Tripp’s lab. “When we got the first assignment of the case studies, I was, like, that’s so cool,” he said. “I’ve never encountered any of that in other STEM courses.”
Passion for social justice drew Satu Ra Enwezor, a second-year student majoring in NPB and studio art, to Tripp’s lab after visiting office hours for help in an introductory NPB class. “[Dr. Tripp] said, ‘Hey, how would you feel about social work and making an impact on health research specifically?’ And I said, ‘That’s basically intrinsic to my being,’” said Enwezor, who is considering a career in medical illustration, with the goal of imbuing her future work as a scientific artist with accessibility, inclusivity and equity.
“As a Black woman, my existence sometimes feels like a political statement,” Enwezor said. “Even past the point of politics, it’s how I’m treated in different health and research spaces. I want to work in my own community, especially in Davis, on destigmatizing conversations about race and inequities. That was a really strong driver for me to join Dr. Tripp’s lab.”
From Healthcare to Educating Future Healthcare Providers
Tripp brought the idea for social justice case studies with her to 51Թϱ in 2021. “I proposed this in my job talk to the university,” she recalled. “Doing that was a big move because social justice is political and often decoupled from science, but I just thought, ‘This is who I am. This is what I want to do.’”
