SummaryDouble‐consciousness pervades the workplace experiences of minority professionals. Prior research captures various manifestations of double‐consciousness in the workplace, yet much of what we know comes from understanding the experiences of minority professionals in predominantly White workplaces. Inherent in conceptions of double‐consciousness is the sense of twoness in one's self concept that arises from seeing oneself through the eyes of both the predominantly White profession and one's own racial community. In this study, we examine contrasts as well as commonalities in experiences of double‐consciousness across different social contexts in the socialization of minority scientists‐in‐training. We draw from qualitative data collected from 64 individuals (including 39 underrepresented minority doctoral students, and 25 faculty, staff, and administrators) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) doctoral programs in both predominantly White and historically Black institutions to examine and compare the factors across different contexts that influence how minority scientists‐in‐training are able to express their emerging professional identity. Our findings reveal how minority scientists‐in‐training experience twoness as both a struggle and a strength, and we develop an inductive model of how different socializations influence the double‐conscious professional self‐expressions of minority scientists in training.

This symposium discusses the perpetuation of societal defaults—assumptions favoring the majority category as opposed to specified linguistics which explicitly state the category—and how they maintain systems of structural inequality. The fist presentation articulates the process through which linguistics constructively influence the default understanding of various identities in the workplace. The second presentation dives deeper into linguistic default assumptions that affect marginalized individuals by examining the affects of pronoun signposting during the hiring process. The third presentation expounds upon the minority/ally relationship by quantitatively exploring factors critical to its existence and communication of minority identity to allies. In the third presentation, a comprehensive framework on workplace allies elucidates factors preventing allyship and teases out the underlying mechanisms leading to stronger relationships between stigmatized employees (such as LGB employees) and their allies (heterosexual employees). The fourth presentation involves an intervention study looking at how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives can influence dominant employees (e.g., whites, men) to change their default understanding of their membership to a privileged social identity group. Finally, the last presentation qualitatively explores alternatives to the default professional image and formulates definitions of Hood culture, Hood identity, and its presence in the workplace. This symposium speaks to a variety of stigmatized groups, not fully embraced by organizations, and argues that their inclusion into organizational norms is critical to advancing the DEI literature as a whole. Changing the Default Presenter: Ryan Scott Teschner; U. of Texas at Dallas

Becoming a minority professional is rife with challenges, as negative interactions based on racial stereotypes can disrupt an emerging self-concept. Organizations that provide more positive affirmations foster the freedom to self-define and reduce the fragmentation and emotional exhaustion that often plagues the minority experience. Identity construction holds a valuable key to unlocking the full potential of minority individuals in organizations. In this study, we examine the identity construction of underrepresented minority doctoral students as they aspire to become minority scientists. Our two qualitative studies draw from interviews and focus groups with 64 underrepresented minority doctoral students, faculty, staff, and administrators across Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly White Institutions to reveal a process model of (de-)racialized identity construction. This model presents how minority individuals construct their professional identity in consideration of their race across different types of institutions, and elaborates cross-level environmental factors that shape the initiation into their profession.