Navigating Transformational Resistance: Exploring Humanitarian Engineering Students' Capacities for Addressing Systemic Causes of Infrastructure Service Disparities
- Conference
- Location
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Portland, Oregon
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2024
- Start Date
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June 23, 2024
- End Date
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July 12, 2024
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Community Engagement Division (COMMENG)
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/47800
Paper Authors
Emma Sophie Stine
University of Colorado Boulder
orcid.org/0000-0003-0822-9937
Emma Stine is pursuing a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she is researching student experiences before, during, and after attending a graduate program in humanitarian engineering, focusing on how these experiences influence career goals and outcome expectations. She is interested in how these goals align with social justice movements, including if and how students and practitioners are addressing global inequality and the SDGs in career pathways, especially now, when activists are calling for the development sector to implement decolonized and anti-racist structures. Emma graduated from the California Polytechnic with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 and an M.S. in Irrigation Engineering in 2020.
Amy Javernick-Will
University of Colorado Boulder
orcid.org/0000-0002-3933-2614
Amy Javernick-Will is a Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering Department.
Abstract
Students enter Humanitarian Engineering (HE) Graduate programs to address infrastructure service disparities in low-income and marginalized communities. Research has found that HE students and the larger HE field want to address the systemic causes of these disparities. However, there is a shortage of scholarship illustrating students' capacity to do so. Further, the limited scholarship on HE students and systemic change focus on the barriers and failures of students to do so. This study analyzes humanitarian engineering students' aspirations and actions for global infrastructure service improvement. We use the Transformational Resistance Framework (TRF) to characterize moments of motivation, negotiation, struggle, and advocacy to address structural oppression. In doing so, this study explores the potential for Humanitarian Engineering students to act as agents of change in transforming unjust systems of oppression. Specifically, this preliminary study found moments of students demonstrating a strong motivation for social justice, critiquing systems of oppression, and, at times, demonstrating both of these characteristics simultaneously.
Stine, E. S., & Javernick-Will, A. (2024, June), Navigating Transformational Resistance: Exploring Humanitarian Engineering Students' Capacities for Addressing Systemic Causes of Infrastructure Service Disparities Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47800
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