Projects in this stream explore how  “change agents” frame and negotiate demands for equity and diversity in science that create tensions within and across institutions, countries, and regions of the world. For example, discourses about academic excellence in higher education tend to position beliefs in meritocracy against the democratic values of equity and diversity. 

To analyze the role of gender and diversity in debates surrounding these and related concepts (such as quotas, violence, participation, and voice), projects in this research stream will use qualitative and computational text analysis of reports on gender and diversity in science to trace the emergence and dissemination of ideas about these concepts.

In addition, we ask how developments and ongoing struggles around gender and diversity in science are related to other ideas and processes in the field, such as the notion of “academic excellence”, the neoliberalisation of academia, demands to improve the international competitiveness of universities, and the seemingly oppositional concepts of “meritocracy” vs. the democratic values of equality and diversity.