2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Critical Consciousness, Equity, and Speculative Futures: Reframing AI as a Catalyst for Human Connection and Systemic Change in Engineering Education

Presented at Transformative and Just Futures in Engineering (Equity, Culture & Social Justice in Education Division ECSJ Technical Session 11)

This practice paper explores how artificial intelligence (AI) can be reimagined as a catalyst for cultivating critical consciousness, challenging systemic inequities, and fostering human connection in engineering education. Drawing on Black feminist thought and critical pedagogy, three reflective narratives illustrate how AI tools can support equity-centered goals when critically engaged. These narratives examine AI as a critical friend for graduate students, the ethical tensions of AI mentorship for neurodivergent academics, and the use of AI in speculative design for institutional change. The paper highlights AI’s potential for emancipatory education while addressing its systemic risks, limitations, and possibilities for justice.

Authors

Dr. Nadia N. Kellam http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9327-1226 Arizona State University [biography]

Nadia Kellam (she/they) is an Associate Professor of Engineering and Associate Director of Research Excellence at The Polytechnic School (TPS) in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. A faculty member in the Engineering Education Systems and Design PhD program and TPS’s undergraduate Engineering program, Kellam is an engineering education researcher and mechanical engineer. Their research examines engineering education culture and institutional change, focusing on marginalized students and educators. An AI enthusiast, Kellam explores the ethical and equity implications of generative AI in engineering education, leveraging AI to foster human connection, challenge inequities, and prepare students for an AI-driven future.

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

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