Dr. Dawn Kiyoe Culpepper (she/hers) is the Associate Director and an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Maryland’s ADVANCE Program for Inclusive Excellence. Dr. Culpepper’s research broadly examines diversity, equity, and inclusion in the academic workplace. She focuses on policies, practices, and resources that foster equity, disrupt bias, spur organizational effectiveness, and create conditions where women and BIPOC scholars can thrive. She has held leadership roles on several NSF-funded projects, including the Faculty Workloads and Rewards Project funded by NSF-ADVANCE and social science research on faculty hiring funded by NSF-AGEP. Dr. Culpepper leverages research to inform practice, leading faculty development and educational initiatives across UMD’s campus. She completed her BA in Government at the University of Virginia, her MEd in Higher Education Administration at NC State University, and her PhD in Higher Education at the University of Maryland.
Merely raising individual awareness of implicit bias can reinforce, rather than mitigate, its impact in the academic workplace. Many ADVANCE programs have launched bystander intervention programs, or trainings aimed at giving faculty members from majority groups (i.e., individuals who identify as White and/or men) skills and strategies to disrupt gender bias. Yet, questions about the goals, content, and potential application of such interventions remain. The goal of this qualitative meta-synthesis is to consider the potential limitations and possibilities of developing bystander intervention trainings with an intersectional lens. Drawing from a vast literature on empirical studies of bystander interventions and allyship in fields like sociology, social psychology, behavioral economics, and social justice education, this synthesis will provide insights to practitioners and researchers about how to develop, implement, and study intersectionally-minded bystander engagement programs.
