Activists at the Intersections: Latinas Overcoming Barriers in Computing

• In Event: Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Perspectives on Computing: Exploring Digital Literacies Through Cultural Responsiveness

Abstract

Despite a growing demand for technically trained workers, the dearth of women and Hispanics is particularly acute in the computing community in North America. In this study we employ figured worlds to understand how Latinas negotiate technical career paths, given their (traditionally limited) access to computing. Our study finds that program mentors in a post-secondary support program authorized positions of expertise and elite status to Latina undergraduates by assigning them to research positions at the University. In this way, they “marked” students as capable, intelligent, and as individuals who “fit in” with the local figured world of computing. Latina undergraduates involved in the program began to develop a critical consciousness about what it means to be a Latina in computing.

Authors

• Sarah Taylor Hug, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Heather L. Thiry, University of Colorado - Boulder