DC Grand Challenge First-Year Seminar: (Mis)Trust in Research

Catalog description

Why is there declining public trust in research and expertise? What kinds of skills are needed to assess the quality of research, and how prevalent are they in the general public? Finally, what can experts do to address the erosion of trust in research? This course will allow students to investigate the various causes of declining trust in research, such as data manipulation, plagiarism, and conflicts of interest in how research is funded, among others. We will explore the various disciplinary perspectives on research validity, and compare and contrast these with public perspectives on research validity. Along the way, students will be introduced to evidence synthesis methodology, a broad research approach that allows researchers to assess large bodies of literature and find points of consensus in any topic area such as climate change, vaccines, economic inequality, etc. Students will work in teams to formulate their research questions on a topic of their selection and then conduct evidence synthesis projects related to (mis)trust in that research area. The evidence synthesis project will have multiple stages of design and implementation and culminate in a final presentation of their findings as to how trust in research can be improved.