Erika Marin-Spiotta wants to understand and perhaps prevent that sense of helplessness Willenbring felt. The University of Wisconsin – Madison professor is leading a $1.1 million grant project from the National Science Foundation to investigate how and why harassment happens within the sciences, particularly within the geosciences — not because they’re the only science facing harassment as a systemic problem, but because of the high likelihood of many, many more students facing the circumstances that Willenbring and Lewis faced.”90 percent or more of geology undergraduate degree programs require a field course. So students have to go to the field,” says Marin-Spiotta. “If something happens, you’re not on campus. You don’t have your support network. It’s unclear. The supervisors in that case might be the people who are harassing you. They control your access to food. They control your access to communication. They control your access to a doctor or healthcare.”
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