Professor Anthony Ryan Hatch discusses the impact mentorship has had in helping him succeed and the structural reality of working in STEM related fields
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After spending his youth in performing arts in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Hatch began his career in community-based public health research at Emory University, working on projects related to drug use, HIV/AIDS, and mental health. He has held training fellowships from the American Sociological Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Science Foundation and was a faculty fellow in the Center for the Humanities.
“One thing I think that is needed is for people to have a good, clear-eyed sense of that distinction between the representation, the image of diversity, the image that we fixed the problem and looking carefully at the structural reality."
This discussion is part of a speaker series hosted by the Black Employee Network at Springer Nature. The series aims to highlight Black contributions to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) a history that has not been widely recognized. It will cover career paths, role models and mentorship, and diversity in STEM.
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Watch the full interview here.
About Professor Anthony Ryan Hatch
Anthony Ryan Hatch, Ph.D., is a sociologist and Associate Professor and Chair of the Science in Society Program at Wesleyan University where is he is also affiliate faculty in the Department of African American Studies, the College of the Environment, and the Department of Sociology. He is the author of Silent Cells: The Secret Drugging of Captive America (Minnesota, 2019) and Blood Sugar: Racial Pharmacology and Food Justice in Black America (Minnesota, 2016). In 2020, he started Black Box Labs, an undergraduate research and training laboratory that offers students training in qualitative research methods aligned with science and technology studies and the opportunity to collaborate with faculty on critical social research. He recently appeared in the PBS documentary Blood Sugar Rising and lectures widely on health systems, medical technology, and social inequalities.
After spending his youth in performing arts in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Hatch began his career in community-based public health research at Emory University, working on projects related to drug use, HIV/AIDS, and mental health. He has held training fellowships from the American Sociological Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Science Foundation and was a faculty fellow in the Center for the Humanities in 2018 and the College of the Environment Think Tank in 2019-20. Dr. Hatch received the 2022 Robin W. Williams Distinguished Lectureship Award from the Eastern Sociological Society.
At Wesleyan, Dr. Hatch serves as the faculty coordinator for the Sustainability & Environmental Justice Pedagogical Initiative and Course Cluster and is involved with the Center for Prison Education and Creative Campus Initiative. He is the faculty advisor for the student-run Espwesso Cafe and proudly serves on the executive board of the Administrators and Faculty of Color Alliance.
