2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In the field of engineering, the negative experiences of women and racially marginalized groups are commonly studied from a deficit framework. While those studies shed light on the precarious situations faced by Black women while attaining their engineering degree, this field of scholarship explores few inquiries into the positive experiences or strengths of these student populations. Rooted in the ideologies of depoliticization and meritocracy, this deficit framework unjustly places the lack of presence from these groups in engineering departments on students and not the systemic obstacles at play. In addition, the study of these groups exclusively allows for the alienation of research on Black women, leading to a lack of literature on the experience of Black women in engineering. The lack of research is a concern because understanding Black women’s experience is crucial to developing targeted support for them. I would like to conduct a literature review exploring current liberatory practices (i.e. practices seeking to challenge hidden norms representing oppressive ideologies) that aim to give Black women visibility in their educational experiences during their undergraduate engineering career. Specifically, I want to look at teaching and learning practices, inside and outside the classroom, that encourage Black women in engineering. This research aims to provide an overview of what is currently known about liberating Black women in the engineering space. Utilizing frameworks from Audre Lorde and Kimberly Crenshaw, prominent womanist and Black feminist scholars I am interested in reviewing literature that leverages Black frameworks to counter the typical deficit framing seen by answering: How have theories of Black feminism been used to understand the learning experiences of Black women in engineering?