Event
EVE Lecture: Questioning What's "Normal" Regarding Diversity in Engineering Education
Monday, December 4, 2017
3:00 p.m.
Zupnik Lecture Hall, 1110 Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building
eveumd@gmail.com
Unknown History and Unseen Culture: Questioning What's "Normal" Regarding Diversity in Engineering Education
Presented by the Clark School's Empowering Voices in Engineering (EVE).
Stephen Secules, Assistant Research Scientist
College of Engineering, University of Georgia
This talk will help engineering stakeholders question the status quo regarding diversity in engineering education. First, Dr. Secules will provide a historical account of the demographics of engineering, which reveals how an initial professional formation as a social position for white male engineers forged long-term professional and educational exclusions and embedded certain cultural norms within the discipline. Long after overt racial and gender exclusions became illegal, these disciplinary norms have functioned to help preserve the demographics of engineering into the present day. Second, Dr. Secules will present research on the ways present day cultural norms in engineering education can contribute to the marginalization of students. He will facilitate an open audience discussion of culture in engineering (i.e., what is "normal") and how each of us can begin to shift it.
Biography
Dr. Stephen Secules is an Assistant Research Scientist and Instructor in the Engineering Education Transformation Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland in 2017. His research focuses on equity, diversity, and culture in undergraduate engineering education. He has consistently presented at professional conferences related to engineering education, education research, and anthropology of education, chairing sessions and winning best paper awards at multiple conferences. Dr. Secules has forthcoming publications in the Journal of Engineering Education related to his anthropological work on marginalization in undergraduate engineering classes.