Conducting and Publishing Cutting Edge Information Systems Research: Issues and Insights from Research on Gender and IS

This presentation considers some of the challenges associated with conducting and publishing high quality, cutting-edge information systems research. It does so by considering issues, insights and lessons learned in conducting and publishing gender and IS research. This reflection forms the basis for consideration of theoretical, epistemological and methodological insights about IS research in general. The purpose is to focus on research issues that have or could arise, the learning from which is applicable to IS research, in general. The topic of gender and IS is a good analogy for cutting-edge research for many reasons which will be discussed during the seminar.

Presenter Profile

Dr. Eileen M. Trauth is Professor of Information Sciences & Technology at the Pennsylvania State University where she also holds affiliate appointments in the departments of: Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies; Management & Organization; International Affairs; and Labor Studies. Dr. Trauth’s research is concerned with societal, cultural and organizational influences on the information technology professions with a special focus on gender and social inclusion. She is particularly interested in the linkages among diversity, social inclusion and economic development.

Dr. Trauth has lectured extensively about and investigated issues of gender underrepresentation in the information technology professions throughout the United States and in Africa, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. She has conducted over 200 life history interviews with women working in the information technology field where she has collected stories of barriers and support. Her current work is focused on the intersectionality of gender and other identity characteristics such as race, ethnicity, socio-economic class, sexuality, nationality and disability status. Dr. Trauth is currently engaged in a field study of 100 African-American men in the information technology field. She has written extensively on the topic of gender diversity and social inclusion. She is editor of the Encyclopedia of Gender and Information Technology and two conference proceedings on the topic of diversity and social inclusion. During 2008 she held the Universität Klagenfurt (Austria) – Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Gender Studies, and is currently serving on the scientific advisory board for Female Empowerment in Science & Technology Academia (FESTA), a European Union, Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. With funding from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Trauth has written a play, iDream (iDreamThePlay.com), based on her interviews with women in the information technology field, as a way to increase awareness about gender barriers in the scientific and technological professions. In 1989 Trauth received a Fulbright Scholar Award to investigate Ireland’s information technology sector and subsequently published The Culture of an Information Economy: Influences and Impacts in the Republic of Ireland (2000).

Her research has been supported by grants from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Australian Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland. She is currently co-editor-in-chief of Information Systems Journal, and has published 9 books and over 200 scholarly papers about her work on gender and social inclusion, the information economy, qualitative research methods, critical theory, global informatics, information policy, information management, telecommunications policy and information systems skills.

www.eileentrauth.com