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Interpersonal power dynamics between STEM faculty advisors and disabled graduate students: an arts-based research composition

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Conference

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Publication Date

June 22, 2025

Start Date

June 22, 2025

End Date

August 15, 2025

Conference Session

An ECSJ Art Show - Equity and Justice through Art (Equity, Culture & Social Justice in Education Division ECSJ Technical Session 6)

Tagged Divisions

Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

9

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/56871

Paper Authors

biography

D. C. Beardmore University of Colorado Boulder Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-9900-9571

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D. C. Beardmore earned their Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. They are currently the Engineering GoldShirt Program Manager for the Broadening Opportunities through Leadership and Diversity (BOLD) center at the University of Colorado Boulder. Their current and historical positionality statements can be found at dcbeardmore.com.

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biography

Angela R Bielefeldt P.E. University of Colorado Boulder

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Angela Bielefeldt is a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) and Director for the Engineering Plus program. She has served as the Associate Chair for Undergraduate

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Abstract

The hierarchical nature of STEM academic programs creates a substantial interpersonal power differential between graduate students and faculty. Research advisors often control a graduate student’s funding, research topic, and acceptance to their graduate program and have significant influence over a student’s career prospects. Understanding the power differential between graduate students and faculty offers the STEM community multiple opportunities to positively impact the academic journey, professional advancement, health, wellbeing, and lives of graduate students. Data was collected through two phases of qualitative interviews with seven disabled STEM graduate students. This paper presents an amalgamation of the participants' paraphrased quotes from interviews regarding their experiences in the form of a poem. This composition reveals a spectrum of interpersonal interaction between graduate students and faculty including, supportive interactions (listening, advocating, affirming, openness, and flexibility), and violence (harassment, discrimination, gaslighting/denial, outing, and abuse). This paper explores harmful interpersonal practices that need to be interrupted and supportive practices that can be modeled. Additionally this paper highlights the need for institutional structures to provide better support and accountability to faculty so that the norms of STEM graduate education can change.

Beardmore, D. C., & Bielefeldt, A. R. (2025, June), Interpersonal power dynamics between STEM faculty advisors and disabled graduate students: an arts-based research composition Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/56871

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