Balancing Social, Personal, and Work Responsibilities for Minoritized Doctoral Students in Engineering

Jerry Yang; Crystal Nattoo

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Intersections of Identity and Student Experiences: Equity, Culture & Social Justice Technical Session 10
Page Count: 22
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41789
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41789
Download Count: 395

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Paper Authors

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Jerry Yang Stanford University orcid.org/0000-0001-5521-8523

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Jerry A. Yang (he/him/his) is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant at Stanford University pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and a MA in Education. He received a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin with a certificate in LGBTQ+/Sexualities Studies. Jerry is currently researching novel two-dimensional materials for conventional and quantum computing applications. In addition, Jerry’s research interestsinclude diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in engineering higher education; the intersections of sociology, feminist, and queer theory and their applications to diversity/equity/inclusion issues in engineering; and mixed-methods study designs for conducting education research.

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Crystal Nattoo

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Crystal Nattoo (she/her) is a first-generation college student from South Florida. She graduated with her bachelors from the University of Miami in 2019 as an Electrical Engineering (EE) major and Graphic Design minor. She then received her EE M.S. degree at Stanford University in 2021, and is currently continuing in the EE Ph.D program.

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Abstract

As significant attention has turned to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues in engineering education, the experiences of marginalized students in engineering continue to be studied. However, one particular group of marginalized students that has yet to receive much attention is minoritized engineering graduate students. Graduate students occupy a unique role in the engineering education institution, fulfilling a myriad of different positions, from student, to employee, to researcher, to teacher, to mentor. These intersecting responsibilities can make it difficult for engineering graduate students with marginalized identities who desire to promote social justice causes to engage in resistance and support DEI issues. Through the emerging critical ethnographic method of counterstory, we illuminate the challenges and successes of navigating graduate student life while actively working in the DEI space from the authors’ perspectives at an elite engineering institution in the western United States. As engineering graduate students with multiple marginalized identities, we share unique experiences in which we must balance the sometimes-competing demands of our studies and research work, our personal and career fulfillment, and our passions in furthering DEI reform and social justice. Our counternarratives highlight how engineering graduate students with marginalized identities may be burdened with significantly more personal, academic, mental, and emotional labor and required to go above and beyond the traditional graduate student workload to be successful in the engineering field. However, we actively resist these forces through ongoing discourse and activism inside and outside of our programs. By presenting our narratives in an academic space, we seek to challenge the researcher/practitioner-student power dynamic and forefront student voices in the ongoing conversation of DEI - in which much of the conversation has been about students instead of to and with students. In doing so, we illuminate marginalized graduate students not just as employees, researchers, and mentors embedded within the engineering academic institution, but more importantly, as powerful agents of social change within engineering academia whose experiences also need to be spotlighted in DEI and social justice work in engineering.

Citation
Format

Yang, J., & Nattoo, C. (2022, August), Balancing Social, Personal, and Work Responsibilities for Minoritized Doctoral Students in Engineering Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41789

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - As significant attention has turned to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues in engineering education, the experiences of marginalized students in engineering continue to be studied. However, one particular group of marginalized students that has yet to receive much attention is minoritized engineering graduate students. Graduate students occupy a unique role in the engineering education institution, fulfilling a myriad of different positions, from student, to employee, to researcher, to teacher, to mentor. These intersecting responsibilities can make it difficult for engineering graduate students with marginalized identities who desire to promote social justice causes to engage in resistance and support DEI issues. Through the emerging critical ethnographic method of counterstory, we illuminate the challenges and successes of navigating graduate student life while actively working in the DEI space from the authors’ perspectives at an elite engineering institution in the western United States. As engineering graduate students with multiple marginalized identities, we share unique experiences in which we must balance the sometimes-competing demands of our studies and research work, our personal and career fulfillment, and our passions in furthering DEI reform and social justice. Our counternarratives highlight how engineering graduate students with marginalized identities may be burdened with significantly more personal, academic, mental, and emotional labor and required to go above and beyond the traditional graduate student workload to be successful in the engineering field. However, we actively resist these forces through ongoing discourse and activism inside and outside of our programs. By presenting our narratives in an academic space, we seek to challenge the researcher/practitioner-student power dynamic and forefront student voices in the ongoing conversation of DEI - in which much of the conversation has been about students instead of to and with students. In doing so, we illuminate marginalized graduate students not just as employees, researchers, and mentors embedded within the engineering academic institution, but more importantly, as powerful agents of social change within engineering academia whose experiences also need to be spotlighted in DEI and social justice work in engineering.

AU  - Jerry Yang
AU  - Crystal Nattoo
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Balancing Social, Personal, and Work Responsibilities for Minoritized Doctoral Students in Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41789
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41789
ER  -