2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Placating Whiteness in Engineering: Operating Under Fear as a Result of Whiteness and the Urgent Need to Achieve Racial Justice

The purpose of this critical theoretical paper is to explore the impacts of Whiteness in engineering spaces, particularly for faculty of color. Given that predominantly white institutions and corporations dominate the field of engineering, Whiteness creates an environment where people of color must act in ways that appease Whiteness as a survival tactic. This paper aims to describe these structural issues and the importance of naming and acknowledging how the predominance of Whiteness in engineering spaces leads to racial injustice in the discipline.

Whiteness operates within a hierarchical system of power and privilege, where white individuals and institutions maintain dominance and control over resources, opportunities, and decision-making processes (Cabrera, 2014). In engineering spaces, this hierarchical system manifests in
various ways. Often, these hierarchical structures are the representation of ideologies present in society as well as engineering spaces. Whiteness manifests when people of color (PoC) operate out of fear–at times policing themselves and others for fear of retribution. Either they must observe the safety of whites and be denied a space that promotes PoC’s growth and development or insist on a space of integrity and put themselves further at risk not only of violence, but also risk being conceived of as illogical or irrational (Leonardo, Porter, 2010).

This paper takes a collaborative autoethnographic approach to examine the experiences of two faculty of color in direct contrast to the experience of a white male faculty member in the same School of Engineering when faced with similar situations. It is important to note that the School of Engineering is embedded in a primarily white institution with a religious affiliation. The institution serves mostly white affluent students, and faculty of color are underrepresented in tenured and tenure-track appointments and overrepresented in contingent (i.e., lecturer) and teaching-track appointments.

We present a dominant narrative and counternarrative for each engineering faculty. The narratives highlight two main events from the perspectives of the different actors in these situations. We use these two events to also highlight how faculty of color operate when
confronted with whiteness, particularly resulting in actions driven out of fear. By juxtaposing these narratives, we aim to reveal the complexities and nuances of navigating an academic landscape shaped by Whiteness.

Authors

Dr. R. Jamaal Downey University of San Diego [biography]

Dr. Downey is an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of San Diego. He received his Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Culture in Education from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Dr. Downey focuses on critical qualitative inquiry with a particular lens of humanizing and culturally sustaining pedagogies. Currently, he is focused on uncovering and exposing scripts of whiteness within engineering education.
Dr. Joel Alejandro Mejia http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3908-9930 University of Cincinnati [biography]

Dr. Joel Alejandro (Alex) Mejia is a Professor of Engineering Education in the Department of Engineering &Computing Education at the University of Cincinnati. Prior to working in academia, he worked as a project engineer for the Department of Defense, Rio Tinto, and FLSmidth Minerals. Dr. Mejia’s work seeks to analyze and describe the assets, tensions, contradictions, and cultural collisions many Latino/a/x students experience in engineering through pláticas and testimonios. His research has contributed to the integration of critical theoretical frameworks in engineering education to investigate deficit ideologies and their impact on minoritized communities. He is particularly interested in approaches that contribute to a more expansive understanding of engineering in sociocultural contexts, engineering education in bilingual contexts, and the impact of critical consciousness in engineering practice.
Dr. Diana A. Chen http://orcid.org/https://0000-0003-3616-1538 University of San Diego [biography]

Diana A. Chen, PhD is an Associate Professor and one of the founding faculty members of Integrated Engineering at the University of San Diego. She earned her BS in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College, and MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from Clemson University. In collaboration with colleagues, Dr. Chen is designing a new engineering curriculum to educate changemakers who understand that engineering is an inherently socio-technical activity. Her passion is studying and encouraging culture change in engineering curricula and spaces to shift engineering to be a field more inclusive of diversity in all forms. Her scholarly interests include engineering education that contextualizes engineering sciences and design, exploring engineering boundaries for inclusive pedagogy, and sustainability and bio-inspired design in the built environment.
Prof. Gordon D Hoople http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2663-4664 University of San Diego [biography]

Dr. Gordon D. Hoople is an assistant professor and one of the founding faculty members of integrated engineering at the University of San Diego. He is passionate about creating engaging experiences for his students. His work is primarily focused on two ar

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025