(Offered as CHEM 250 and SOCI 250)  This is an interactive course that combines academic inquiry and community engagement to investigate identity, inequality and representation within STEM fields--at Amherst and beyond. In the first half of the semester we will ground our understanding of the STEM experience at Amherst in national and global contexts. We will survey the interdisciplinary literature on the ways in which identity - gender, class, race, sexuality- and geographic context shape STEM persistence and belonging.