T158 Intention Is Not Enough: Real-life Power Imbalances in the History of Geosciences and Possible Futurities

Tuesday, 24 September 2024
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
208A

DEFINING HIERARCHY: LEARNING TO NAVIGATE THE CONCEPT BETWEEN THOSE WHO RESPECT IT AND THOSE WHO DO NOT

Paper number: T158-14
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 11:00 AM – 11:15 AM

Authors

Abstract

Relationships are key to the human experience, whether they are personal, social, or professional, but the way different relationships are approached by the participants varies based on individual factors. Key to successful professional relationships, such as those between students, teachers, colleagues, mentors, advisors, supervisors, etc., is a mutual understanding of the roles played by each member. While clear to some, this is often a factor of “hidden curriculum” to others, especially those who inherently understand hierarchy, expertise, and power in a non-typical way. Neurodivergent individuals are often pointed to as “struggling” with social norms and conceptualizing workplace structure and recent work shows this might be due to a fundamental difference in how neurodivergent individuals come to respect others. It is increasingly noted that hierarchy, as imposed by neurotypical individuals (i.e., title, years in field), is seen as arbitrary by those in with neurodivergence. Lopsided interpretations of hierarchy can lead to conflict in academic relationships, where some community members believe that their positions are earned based on metrics (i.e. productivity, age, etc.), while others view hierarchical position based on mutual respect and contributions within the relationship.

We will focus on the authors’ experiences, as neurodivergent geoscientists, with academic hierarchy and lessons learned from interactions in their own professional relationships. These experiences will be integrated with recent findings from experts in neurodivergence in the workplace to make suggestions on reducing the stress of unmatched expectations in professional relationships and improving the dynamic between individuals with varying neurotypes.

The experience of the authors represents time spent in undergraduate & graduate education, public and private industry, early career academia, and laboratory research as autistic persons and persons with attention deficit hyperactive disorder, as well as varying comorbidities and treatment delays. We recognize the broad range of definitions encompassing neurodivergence and hope our experiences will spark conversations to help those with identities outside of our own find success in their professional settings.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 56, No. 5

doi: 10.1130/abs/2024AM-405386

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