Negotiating boundaries: an intersectional collaboration to advance women academics in engineering

Coleen Carrigan, Saejin Kwak Tanguay, Joyce Yen, Julie Simmons Ivy, Cara Margherio, M. Claire Horner-Devine, Eve A. Riskin, Christine S. Grant

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper draws on data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE-funded LATTICE program (Launching Academics on the Tenure-Track: an Intentional Community in Engineering) to examine how a diverse group of women worked across social and professional identities to support early-career women in academic engineering. We used ethnography to elucidate the social dynamics and power relations involved in forming a coherent group identity for the LATTICE leadership team, and the boundaries we negotiated in running the LATTICE program. We identify the processes and behaviors through which we made boundaries between members salient yet porous to build a coherent community across various dimensions of difference. We offer three actionable strategies that impact change agents’ engagement and the group’s coherence across multiple dimensions of difference: (1) intentionally creating a socio-emotional culture in our group, one that spans across group members’ personal and professional identities; (2) validating other group members’ perspectives, and (3) striving to build consensus using storytelling. These strategies of the LATTICE leadership team provide guidelines for others who work across intersecting dimensions of difference.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9-29
Number of pages21
JournalEngineering Studies
Volume15
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Keywords

  • Collaboration
  • broadening participation
  • emotions
  • engineering
  • ethnography
  • intersectionality

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