Susan Fisk
Biography
Biography
Dr. Fisk's research focuses on how social-psychological processes contribute to the gender and racial segregation of occupations, as well as interventions to disrupt these processes. She is particularly interested in how micro-level, social-psychological processes depress women’s upward mobility in the workforce and how to leverage our sociological knowledge of career-choice processes to broaden participation in computing.
Her work has been published in Social Psychology Quarterly, PLOS ONE, and Transactions on Computing Education, and she has been awarded over a million dollars from the National Science Foundation for her research. She has served as PI or Co-PI on four NSF grants focused on implementing interventions to broaden participation in computing, including serving as the Sociology Research Lead for the STARS Computing Corps. She also currently serves as Co-PI on the KSU ADVANCE Catalyst grant. In addition, she has worked on Google’s People Analytics Team to quantify gender and racial inequities and implement and assess change efforts.
Research and teaching interests:
- Social Psychology
- Occupational Segregation
- Gender
- Mobility
- Inequality
- Organizations and Work
- Quantitative Research Methods
Education
Expertise
Inequalities (class/gender/race/ethnicity)
Publications
- Munsch, Christin, Lindsey Trimble O’Connor, and Susan R. Fisk. 2024. “Gender and the Disparate Payoffs of Overwork.” Social Psychology Quarterly, 87(1): 22-43.
- Fisk, Susan R. and Jon Overton. 2020. “Bold or Reckless? The Impact of Workplace Risk-Taking on Attributions and Expected Outcomes.” PLOS ONE, 15(3): e0228672
- Fisk, Susan R. and Jon Overton. 2019. “Who Wants to Lead? Anticipated Gender Discrimination Reduces Women’s Leadership Ambitions.” Social Psychology Quarterly, 82(3): 319-332
- Fisk, Susan R. 2018. “Who’s on Top? Gender Differences in Risk-Taking Produce Unequal Outcomes for High-Ability Women and Men.” Social Psychology Quarterly, 81(3): 185-206.
- Fisk, Susan R. and Cecilia Ridgeway. 2018. “Framing Gender.” In The Handbook of the Sociology of Gender, edited by Barbara Risman, Carissa Froyum, and William Scarborough. Springer Press.
- Fisk, Susan R., Brennan J. Miller, and Jon Overton. 2017. “Why Social Status Matters for Understanding the Interrelationships Between Testosterone, Economic Risk‐Taking, and Gender.” Sociology Compass, 11(3): e12452.
- Fisk, Susan R. 2016. “Gender Stereotypes, Risk-Taking, and Gendered Mobility.” In Advances in Group Processes, pp. 179-210, Vol. 33, edited by S. R. Thye and E. J. Lawler. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
- Ridgeway, Cecilia and Susan R. Fisk. 2012. “Class Rules, Status Dynamics, and ‘Gateway’ Interactions.” In Facing Social Class: The Social Psychology of Social Class, edited by S. T. Fiske and H. R. Markus. Russell Sage Foundation.
Awards/Achievements
- Co-PI. National Science Foundation (NSF) Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC). “STARS Computing Corps: Extending a National Community of Practice for Developing BPC Change Leaders.” 2024 – 2029. $5.9M ($255k to KSU). Awarded 2024
- Co-PI. National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE Catalyst. “Who is Counted and What Counts? Tracking Women’s Engagement in Low-Prestige/High-Workload Service Activities at Kent State University.” 2022 – 2024. $300k ($300k to KSU). Awarded 2022
- PI. National Science Foundation (NSF) Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC). “STARS: Catalyzing Action-Oriented Academic Communities for Broadening Participation in Computing.” 2021 – 2024. $3.6M ($307k to KSU). Awarded 2021
- PI. National Science Foundation (NSF) Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: HER). “Analysis of a Simple, Low-cost Intervention's Impact on Retention of Women in Computer Science.” 2020 – 2022. $300k ($125k to KSU)
- Graduate Student Mentorship Award, given by the Sociology Graduate Students at Kent State University, 2020.
