A Motley Crew of Historically Marginalized Postsecondary STEM Women Share Narratives From a STEM Counterspace

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Transformative Spaces: Faculty and Counterspaces Fostering Inclusion, Belonging, and Critical Care in Higher Education (Table 5)

Abstract

There are many ways that women can experience the exclusionary culture of STEM programs– as each particularity of the culture of their STEM field intersect with the mix of their own intersectional identities. Thus, more radical interventions are needed to support women and the complexities of their experiences in postsecondary STEM. In this paper we use Narrative Inquiry and Participatory Action Research to explore how one such intervention, a Counterspace, adapted to support four historically marginalized women in postsecondary STEM. We use Case and Hunter’s (2012) three processes of Counterspaces to frame our analysis. This case particularly demonstrates how one counterspace can support a motley crew of individuals, all with completely different experiences and in different places in STEM.

Authors

• Robyn Ruttenberg-Rozen, University of Ontario Institute of Technology

• Lonimi Christina Ayekun, University of Guelph

• Dalen Arthur, University of Ontario Institute of Technology

• Nichole Powell, Emory University