2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Work-in-Progress: Towards Advancing Grassroots Transformative Advocacy Strategies for Work Justice of BIPOC Contingent Faculty

Presented at Equity, Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY) Technical Session 6

In engineering, most contingent faculty positions are held by minoritized groups such as but not limited to Black, Indigenous, People of Color of all intersecting identities (BIPOCx) representing a missed opportunity to broaden participation. Since many of these professionals directly support minoritized students in fundamental undergraduate courses, it is imperative to understand how to professionally develop and mentor these faculty. As part of a National Science Foundation Broadening Participation hub called Raíces Institute for Transformative Advocacy (RITA), the authors seek to facilitate a mentoring hub to train, mentor, and equip BIPOCx contingent faculty to form their own grassroots transformative advocacy plans for attaining promotion and/or equitable working conditions in engineering at their hiring institutions. This paper discusses the strategic planning and designs of RITA during its inception stages and concludes with a discussion on the significance of RITA in supporting this severely undersupported group of professionals in engineering.

Authors

Dr. Idalis Villanueva Alarcón http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-8767-2576 University of Florida [biography]

Dr. Villanueva Alarcón is an Associate Professor in the Engineering Education Department at the University of Florida. Her research interest is in hidden curriculum, multi-modal methods, mentoring, and professional development.
Dr. Homero Murzi http://orcid.org/https://0000-0003-3849-2947 Virginia Tech [biography]

Dr. Homero Murzi (he/él/his) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Homero is the leader of the Engineering Competencies, Learning, and Inclusive Practices for Success (ECLIPS) Lab where he leads a team focused on doing research on contemporary, culturally relevant, and inclusive pedagogical practices, emotions in engineering, competency development, and understanding the experiences of traditionally marginalized engineering students from an asset-based perspective. Homero’s goal is to develop engineering education practices that value the capital that traditionally marginalized students, bring into the field, and to train graduate students and faculty members with the tool to promote effective and inclusive learning environments and mentorship practices. Homero has been recognized as a Diggs Teaching Scholar, a Graduate Academy for Teaching Excellence Fellow, a Global Perspectives Fellow, a Diversity Scholar, a Fulbright Scholar, a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, and was inducted into the Bouchet Honor Society. Homero serves as the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Chair for the Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CDEI), the Program Chair for the ASEE Faculty Development Division, and the Vice Chair for the Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN).
Marisela Martinez-Cola

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