Real Life, Real Struggles: Reflections on Brandon Taylor’s Novel and Why DEI in Science Matters
March 2025
By ELIZABETH SIAW
Edited by MANAL ADITI
“He puts the phone away, gets off the bench, and takes the lakeshore path back to the pier, where the people are already gathering for the evening. It’s only late afternoon, but here they are, snagging the famous multicolored tables. This is the site of the city’s greatest confluence of university students and what Wallace and his friends call real people; that is, locals who are not affiliated with the university.” — Brandon Taylor, Real Life (Chapter 7)
If you’ve ever strolled down the Lakeshore Path and watched the sun glimmer on the water as crowds gather at Memorial Union’s Terrace, this scene will feel instantly familiar. The setting of Brandon Taylor’s debut novel Real Life is a thinly veiled portrait of UW–Madison’s campus, where Taylor himself completed his PhD in Biochemistry before turning to writing. But while the campus appears idyllic on the surface, the beauty of the Midwestern landscape sharply contrasts with the emotional terrain navigated by Wallace, a Black, queer PhD student in Biochemistry. As he wrestles with what it means to live and work in a space that was never built for him, Real Lifeexplores themes of racial and queer identity, mental health, and the myth of meritocracy in science - while inviting its readers to better understand and reflect on the systemic challenges faced by marginalized scientists.
In this novel, Wallace navigates the invisible yet suffocating boundaries of race, identity, and belonging within the sterile, often isolating world of academia. Through sparse prose and piercing introspection, Taylor (2020) lays bare the microaggressions, social exclusions, and academic gatekeeping that slowly erode Wallace’s sense of self over the course of a few summer weeks. In one moment, Wallace is reminded how much university is a privilege for someone of his ‘background’ by the ‘unspoken debt’ he owes to “wealthy white people (who) fling bits of bread at koi and talk in hushed, slurred voices about the changing demographics of the university.” In another, he is subtly alienated during a dinner conversation where his White friends acknowledge his Blackness through supposed ‘deficiencies’ and “prospects for… Black people”. All the while, he endures constant racial devaluation from his mentor and a fellow labmate—someone incompetent yet inexplicably venerated--who accuses him of misogyny and claims he can “walk around because [he’s] gay and Black and act[s] like [he] can do no wrong.” Rather than relying on dramatic plot twists, Taylor illustrates how seemingly minute wounds, inflicted in casual situations, can accumulate into profound emotional weight.
Taylor’s fiction resonates because it reflects a real yet often overlooked truth in STEM: the institutional challenges faced by underrepresented scientists. While underrepresented minority students enroll in STEM programs at the same rates as their peers, they are significantly more likely to switch majors before their graduation.; Black and Latino workers, for instance, make up only 25% of STEM degree earners (Cohodes et al., 2022). Similarly, according to the National Science Foundation (2022), Black, Native, Hispanic, and Asian students are awarded disproportionately fewer STEM degrees compared to their White peers. And even after 10 years of gender awareness raising, such disparities continue to persist —despite women now enrolling in tertiary education at equal rates to men, they still make up only a third of the global STEM postsecondary population (Global Education Monitoring Report Team, 2024). These challenges are compounded for those facing intersectionality in distinct forms of marginalization. LGBTQ+ students of color, racially diverse women, and other underrepresented groups often encounter barriers ranging from the lack of culturally competent mentorship to feelings of isolation in departments that remain predominantly white, male, and heteronormative.
It is essential to recognize that these barriers are not just interpersonal—they are structural. Implicit bias is still rampant in academia, influencing everything from grant decisions to peer review. Research shows that diverse teams are more likely to generate innovative ideas and produce highly cited work (Kamalumpundi et al., 2024). Yet, these same groups often receive less institutional support, leading many racial and gender minority scientists to leave academia altogether. Without intentional efforts to address these disparities, STEM will continue to lose brilliant minds to environments that fail to recognize their full potential.
All in all, Taylor’s Real Life is more than a novel. Real Life is a mirror, a challenge, and a quiet call to action, reminding us that behind every data point obtained is a real person navigating complex realities. As an undergraduate international student belonging to an identity-inclusive lab that covered this book in our DEI discussion meeting, I can attest to its significance; not just for its literary merit, but for the conversations it sparks. This masterpiece urges us to reflect on who gets to feel accepted in science and what steps we can take to make academia more inclusive, equitable, and, most importantly, human. After all, if STEM truly aspires to solve the world’s most pressing problems, it must also embrace the full diversity of those who experience them--and commit to repairing the very real, very flawed, systematic barriers that persist.
References/Works Cited:
Cohodes, S., Ho, H., & Robles, S. (2022). STEM Summer Programs for Underrepresented youth Increase STEM degrees. https://doi.org/10.3386/w30227
Global Education Monitoring Report Team. (2024). Global education monitoring report 2024, gender report: technology on her terms. https://doi.org/10.54676/wvcf2762
Kamalumpundi, V., Neikirk, K., Mukaz, D. K., Vue, Z., Vue, N., Perales, S., & Hinton, A. (2024). Diversity, equity, and inclusion in a polarized world: Navigating challenges and opportunities in STEMM. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 35(11). https://doi.org/10.1091/mbc.e24-06-0264
National Science Foundation. (2022, February). S&E degrees by race and ethnicity. Higher Education in Science and Engineering | NSF - National Science Foundation. https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20223/demographic-attributes-of-s-e-degree-recipients#:~:text=Blacks%20constituted%2014%25%20of%20the,(Figure%20HED%2D12).&text=In%20most%20fields%2C%20Hispanics%20earn,(Table%20SHED%2D3).&text=Share%20S&E%20degrees%20awarded%20to%20Hispanics%20or%20Latinos%20and%20Blacks,degree%20level%20and%20field:%202019.
National Science Foundation. (2024, May). The STEM labor force: scientists, engineers, and skilled technical workers | NSF - National Science Foundation. Science and Engineering Indicators | National Science Board. https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20245
Taylor, B. (2020). Chapter 2. In Real Life. Penguin Publishing Group.
