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Session Description

This session will provide historical context for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) efforts, and a moderated discussion of challenges and opportunities by scholars and activists representing pro-Black, Indigenous, queer, or disability perspectives on engineering education.

Speakers

1. Prof. Amy Slaton

   Drexel University

   Amy E. Slaton is a professor in the Department of History. She holds a PhD in the History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania and has taught courses in the history of American science, technology and architecture, as well as in U.S. labor history and race relations. Slaton directed Drexel's Master's Program in Science, Technology and Society from 2001 to 2009 and has been a visiting associate professor at Haverford College. She is an active scholar within the ASEE LEES community and formerly served as LEES Program and Division Chair.

   Slaton has long been interested in the social character of technical expertise and work. She has written on the history of building technologies and materials testing, with a focus on who gets credit when things go well, and who gets blamed when structures and materials fail. Her book, "Reinforced Concrete and the Modernization of American Building, 1900-1930" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), integrated the histories of materials testing, construction labor, building codes and standards, and aesthetic change surrounding the introduction of commercial reinforced concrete in the United States. Slaton is also interested in understandings of technical aptitude in American manufacturing and engineering more generally, with particular emphasis on the role of race. Her most recent book is "Race, Rigor, and Selectivity in U.S. Engineering: The History of an Occupational Color Line" (Harvard University Press, 2010).

2. Prof. Sepehr Vakil

   Northwestern University

   Sepehr Vakil is an assistant professor of Learning Sciences in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Previously he was Assistant Professor of STEM Education and the Associate Director of Equity & Inclusion in the Center for STEM Education at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his PhD in the Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology program at UC Berkeley, and his B.S and M.S in Electrical Engineering from UCLA.

3. Stephanie Masta

   Purdue University at West Lafayette (PPI)

   An Associate Professor of Curriculum Studies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education at Purdue University, Stephanie Masta is also Division Chair for ASEE's ECSJ division. Her research forefronts the centrality of Indigenous education within Curriculum Studies through the development and use of Indigenous methodologies to study Indigenous student experiences in educational contexts. Her work builds on existing Indigenous theories (e.g. Tribal Critical Race Theory) to create methods that center Indigenous perspectives.

4. Dr. Meagan C Pollock

   Engineer Inclusion

   Since 2018, Dr. Pollock has served as the Chair of the Professional Development Committee for the American Society for Engineering Education Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and she is now the Commission Chair. In addition, she is an Associate Fellow at the Southern Methodist University Caruth Institute for Engineering Education. A past recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Meagan holds a PhD in engineering education from Purdue University, an MS in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University, and a BS in computer science from Texas Woman’s University.

5. Mrs. Kayla R. Maxey

   Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

   NSF STEM Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Visiting faculty member at Indiana University--Purdue. PhD in Engineering Education from Purdue.