2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Teaching Social Justice in Infrastructure: A Community of Practice Framework for the use of Case Studies

Presented at Transformative Learning in STEM: Accessibility, Social Impact, and Inclusivity in Higher Education

The Center for Infrastructure Transformation and Education (CIT-E) was created in 2015 as a community of practice (CoP) for those interested in the scholarship of infrastructure education and has developed a model introductory infrastructure course with over 40 lessons available to any faculty member to use or modify. In the summer of 2023 CIT-E held a workshop “Teaching Students about Equitable Infrastructure”. As a result of that workshop one of the ongoing efforts has been focused on the development of lessons or a module focused on the broad topic of Repairing Inequities in Infrastructure.

This paper aims to outline the broad objectives of this module, the procedures used by the CoP, and the desired outcome. It will present a framework created to assist faculty in developing their own lessons related to past or present infrastructure inequities that could be used in any course that touches on infrastructure. The objective of this framework is to provide an easy to use model to allow faculty to develop lessons that can be related to any infrastructure topics that highlight Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) aspects and will encourage students to plan improvements that would address JEDI issues that exist, as well as avoiding repeating them in the future. The framework will provide a solid foundation for faculty to take a case study or historical example and create objectives, design student exercises to be used before, during, or after a class session, to help students identify inequalities created by infrastructure and understand the historical context of that infrastructure, as well as plan for solutions that address the remediation of infrastructure inequities. The CIT-E CoP is simultaneously creating several lessons using case studies that are being developed applying this framework and which will be available to use by any faculty member.

Authors

Dr. Claudia Mara Dias Wilson New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology [biography]

Dr. Claudia Mara Dias Wilson is an Associate Professor in civil engineering at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech). She earned her B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Florida State University. Although she specialized in earthquake mitigation and the development of control algorithms for semi-active dampers to reduce seismic vibrations on buildings, her research interests are broad and include topics in structural engineering, earthquake engineering, construction management, transportation engineering, and engineering education. She also advises the Student Chapters of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) at New Mexico Tech.
Thais Alves San Diego State University
Dr. Corrie Walton-Macaulay http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8359-9810 Saint Martin's University [biography]

With degrees in both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from the University of Arkansas, and a doctoral degree from the University of Kentucky, Dr. Corrie Walton-Macaulay is a Geotechnical Engineering Associate Professor in the Civil Engineering department at St. Martin's University, where he has been part of the faculty since 2019. Dr. Walton-Macaulay has extensive experience in the geotechnical and materials industry prior to becoming an academician and is a licensed professional engineer. Dr. Walton-Macaulay's has a passion to teach, to educate upcoming civil engineers in best practices and for them to look to alternative ways and new technology that will improve on current design methods. Dr. Walton-Macaulay believes that fostering diversity in teaching breeds innovation and is currently focused on engineering education research on socio-economic inequities in infrastructure.
Xiaomei Wang Brigham Young University [biography]

Dr. Xiaomei Wang, a Civil Engineering Ph.D., specializes in environmental engineering. She conducts research on infrastructure sustainability, leveraging her expertise to address pressing challenges in the field.
Dr. Scott R Hamilton P.E. York College of Pennsylvania [biography]

Scott Hamilton is a Professor of Civil Engineering at York College of Pennsylvania. He is a registered Professional Engineer and has both a MS and PhD in civil engineering and a Masters in
engineering management from Stanford University and a BS from the United States Military Academy, West Point. He is a retired US Army Corps of Engineers officer who has had assignments in the US, Germany, Korea, and Afghanistan. During his military career he spent over 10 years on the faculty at the US Military Academy at West Point teaching civil engineering. He also served as the Director, Graduate Professional Development at Northeastern University’s College of Engineering. He is the recipient of the 2021 NSPE Engineering Education Excellence Award and the 2019 ASCE Thomas A Lenox ExCEEd Leadership Award.
Gloria Faraone
Dr. Nicholas Tymvios Bucknell University [biography]

Nicholas Tymvios received a B.S. and M.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Purdue University in 1999, and 2002 respectively. After working for four years in Cyprus in the construction industry, he was accepted into the Ph.D. program at Oregon State Univer
Dr. Moses Tefe Norwich University [biography]

Moses is currently an Associate Professor of Transportation Engineering at Norwich University, where he instructs students in Transportation Engineering, Surveying and Site Development. He graduated from the University of Alabama in August 2012 with a PhD

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