2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The experiences of engineering students with multiply marginalized identities have gained increasing attention from engineering education researchers and practitioners, as they face unique oppressions due to their interlocking identities. In exploring these experiences, researchers and practitioners have often marshalled the theoretical construct of intersectionality to explain multiply marginalized students’ experiences. Intersectionality, first coined by Black feminist scholar Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989, generally refers to conceptualizing the experiences of multiply marginalized people not as a sum of marginalization brought upon by each identity, but as a unique product of all the interlocking oppressions they face as multiply marginalized people [1]. However, as the term has become more popularized and mainstream, definitions of intersectionality – and what it means to do (or not do) “intersectional” research – have shifted over time [2]. Since its first use in engineering education literature in 2009 [3], intersectionality has gained steadily increasing prevalence in engineering education research, highlighting the need to unpack its definitions, meanings, operationalization, and utilization within the context of engineering education.

In this paper, I introduce a brief history of intersectionality’s radical roots and evolving definitions in queer Black feminist activism, identity politics, and social justice efforts. Then, I showcase a subset of a broader, on-going mixed-methods scoping review on intersectionality’s definitions and usage in the engineering education research literature over time. Drawing from a dataset of 25 journal articles published in the Journal of Engineering Education between 2011 and 2022, I analyze word frequencies, types of studies, and contexts in which intersectionality is summoned using descriptive statistics and qualitative coding. These results suggest the need for two key considerations in future engineering education research engaging in intersectionality: first, a reframing of intersectionality as a theory about structural systems of power, privilege, and oppression rather than individuals with multiply marginalized identities, and second, a call for researchers to intentionally situate intersectionality within systemic oppression, social justice, liberation, and solidarity/coalition-building frameworks.
[1] K. Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum, vol. 1989, no. 1, pp. 139–167, 1989.
[2] J. C. Harris and L. D. Patton, “Un/Doing Intersectionality through Higher Education Research,” The Journal of Higher Education, vol. 90, no. 3, pp. 347–372, May 2019, doi: 10.1080/00221546.2018.1536936.
[3] D. M. Riley, A. L. Pawley, J. Tucker, and G. D. Catalano, “Feminisms in Engineering Education: Transformative Possibilities,” NWSA Journal, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 21–40, 2009.