Bio and Society PhD student earns national research recognition award
Originally hailing from Houston, Texas, Carly Busch completed her Bachelor’s degree in Biology at a small liberal arts college in the state of Washington, Whitman College. After doing some fieldwork in Australia, she focused her efforts on tutoring math and science and most recently teaching introductory biology at the University of Washington. Her love of teaching prompted her to pursue a Ph.D. at Arizona State University studying biology education research.
Since starting at ASU in August, Carly has excelled as a Ph.D. student. Her research generally focuses on the experiences of concealable identities, such as LGBTQ+ identity, and the impact of instructors revealing these identities on students. She is being co-advised by SOLS faculty Dr. Katelyn Cooper and Dr. Sara Brownell. Carly has been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and recently was awarded a “Research Recognition Award” from the American Physiological Society Teaching of Physiology section for her research project on the impact of an LGBTQ+ instructor revealing their identity in the classroom. Her work has found that most students think that it is appropriate for a LGBTQ+ instructor to reveal their identity in the classroom and the majority of students feel as though they benefit from an instructor doing so. While it seems to affect most students positively, this is disproportionately impactful for LGBTQ+ students. She is currently in the process of writing up these results for publication.
Stay tuned for what will likely be a productive and impactful graduate career!