Just Science

The lives and legacies of trailblazing BIPOC scientists such as Ernest Everett Just remind us that the pursuit of knowledge and the act of knowing are political acts that animate our moral frameworks and value systems, while broadening our vision of who the knowledge seekers can be. Just Science is a public lecture series of the E.E. Just Program that illuminates the intersection between the expansion of scientific understanding and the pursuit of notions of justice, including social justice, environmental justice, educational justice and racial justice.

Letting Go of Deficit Models

Nate Brown
Penn State University, Dept. of Mathematics

 April 15, 2026

Watch the full video of "Letting Go of Deficit Models"

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Headshot of Nate Brown with math and science background

When it comes to student success in college, or the lack thereof, it's easy to identify deficits in our students. They should learn more in high school, party less in college, and so on. While these deficit models have some truth, we will challenge their validity and explore some logical consequences. Then we will critically analyze a few components of higher education with an intentional avoidance of deficit thinking. The talk will be interactive and accessible to everyone in higher education.

 

About the Speaker

Nate Brown is a theoretical mathematician committed to equity and inclusion in STEM education. His research has received continuous grant support since 1999. His teaching awards include Penn State's Eisenhower Award in 2022, while his equity work earned a Robinson Equal Opportunity Award in 2017. He thinks John Lewis was a total badass.

Nate Brown Website


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Poster for Just Science Talk by Nate Brown April 15 2026 Kemeny 014 at 5 pm

Recent Just Science Lectures:

Science, Slave Trading, and 'Making' Race

Carolyn Roberts '93 (Yale University)

January 21, 2026

Watch the Video Recording of "Science, Slave Trading, and 'Making' Race"

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Headshot of Carolyn Roberts '93

The scientific enterprise is an invigorating and inspiring space in which to create knowledge that can transform the world. At its best, science is forward-thinking and visionary in a way that allows us to imagine and bring into being that which doesn't yet exist. However, while scientists build, dream, and seek to improve our world, it can be helpful to pause and gaze at that which came before.  In this lecture, we turn our gaze backwards, peering into our collective past. We will explore some of the hidden figures who contributed to the fund of scientific knowledge and reflect upon foundational moments that shaped the sciences. Our focus will be on Africa and the African diaspora in the context of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. We will consider the ways in which slavery and slave trading contributed to scientific knowledge, including contributions made by enslaved African and African-descended people. This aspect of our scientific inheritance, while often hidden from view, allows us to query the complicated relationship between science, culture, and race.
 

About the Speaker

Dr. Carolyn Roberts is a historian of science and medicine at Yale University, where she holds joint appointments in the Department of History of Science and Medicine, Department of History, and Department of Black Studies. She also has a secondary appointment in the History of Medicine Program at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Roberts is currently completing her book To Heal and to Harm: An Origin Story of Predatory Medicine in the Western World, which is under contract with Harvard University Press. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College (BA), Andover Newton Theological School (MA) and Harvard University (PhD).'


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Poster for Just Science Talk by Carolyn Roberts Jan 21 2026