Academic Grieving: (Critical) Reflections on the Dangers of Romanticizing DEI in Engineering Education
By: James Holly Jr. and Amy Slaton
References
- Abrica, E. J., & Oliver Andrew, R. (2024). The racial politics of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Advance online publication. 10.1037/dhe0000566
- Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Duke University Press. 10.1215/9780822395324
- American Psychological Association. (2018, April 19). Grief. APA Dictionary of Psychology.
https://dictionary.apa.org/grief - Annamma, S. A., Connor, D., & Ferri, B. (2013). Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit): Theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability. Race Ethnicity and Education, 16(1), 1–31. 10.1080/13613324.2012.730511
- Bang, M., & Medin, D. (2010). Cultural processes in science education: Supporting the navigation of multiple epistemologies. Science Education, 94(6), 1008–1026. 10.1002/sce.20392
- Bell, D. (1987). And we are not saved: The elusive quest for racial justice. Basic Books.
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/derrick-bell/and-we-are-not-saved/9780465003297/?lens=basic-books - Benjamin, R. (2017). Cultura obscura: Race, culture and power talk in the “Health Sciences.” American Journal of Law and Medicine, 43(2–3), 225–238. 10.1177/0098858817723661
- Berlant, L. (2011). Cruel optimism. Duke University Press. 10.1215/9780822394716
- Berry, E. (2015). The enigma of diversity. University of Chicago Press.
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo19910067.html - Brown, H. P., & Morton, T. R. (2023). “Sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Journal of Engineering Education, 112(1), 7–11. 10.1002/jee.20501
- Campbell-Montalvo, R., Kersaint, G., Smith, C. A., Puccia, E., Skvoretz, J., Wao, H., Martin, J. P., MacDonald, G., & Lee, R. (2022). How stereotypes and relationships influence women and underrepresented minority students’ fit in engineering. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 59(4), 656–692. 10.1002/tea.21740
- Carpenter, A. J., Feraud-King, T., Lewis, T., Stephens-Peace, K. J., Chinkondenji, P., Stanislaus, E., & George Mwangi, C. (2024). Rage in (and out) the cage: Black students’ negotiation of safety. Journal of Black Studies, 55(5), 375–399. 10.1177/00219347241233772
- CLEAR Collective. (2021). #Collabrary: A methodological experiment for reading with reciprocity. Retrieved February 26, 2025,
https://civiclaboratory.nl/2021/01/03/collabrary-a-methodological-experiment-for-reading-with-reciprocity/ - Curran, F. C. (2025, April 30). Trump seeks to reshape how schools discipline students. The Conversation.
https://theconversation.com/trump-seeks-to-reshape-how-schools-discipline-students-255377 - Damas, S. A. (2024). Investigating institutional support for a minority engineering program at a historically White institution (Publication No. 31621532) [Doctoral dissertation, Clemson University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
https://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/investigating-institutional-support-minority/docview/3122677628/se-2 - Dickerson, D. A., Masta, S., Ohland, M. W., & Pawley, A. L. (2024). Is Carla grumpy? Analysis of peer evaluations to explore microaggressions and other marginalizing behaviors in engineering student teams. Journal of Engineering Education, 113(3), 603–634. 10.1002/jee.20606
- Dietz, G. A., Brown, R. D., Douglas, E. P., McCray, E. D., & Richardson, P. G. (2023). Manifestations of racism in the engineering workplace. Studies in Engineering Education, 4(1), 69–89. 10.21061/see.77
- Feinstein, S., Nelson, T. N., Poleacovschi, C., & Smith, K. (2025). Microaggressions in engineering education: Targets, perpetrators, and where they happen. Journal of Civil Engineering Education, 151(1),
04024007-2-04024007-8 . 10.1061/JCEECD.EIENG-2164 - Fifield, S., & Letts, W. (Eds.) (2019). STEM of desire: Queer theories and science education. Brill. 10.1163/9789004331068
- Givens, J. R. (2021). Fugitive pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the art of Black teaching. Harvard University Press.
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674278752 - Greer, C. (2025, April 11). Black Americans are not surprised. New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/opinion/black-americans-trump-politics.html - Gonzàlez Stokas, A. (2023). Reparative universities: Why diversity alone won’t solve racism in higher ed. Johns Hopkins University Press.
https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12680/reparative-universities?srsltid=AfmBOorwJIyJtsh-4m9n-9oKNc4YJI0cosftQEdcSLcmKWvlqplyrNZA - Hamraie, A. (2017). Building access: Universal design and the politics of disability. University of Minnesota Press.
https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517901646/building-access/ - Henderson, T. S. (2024). Eurocentric epistemologies in engineering: Manifestations in first-year student design teams and consequences for student learning. Journal of Engineering Education, 113(2), 360–382. 10.1002/jee.20589
- Holly, J., & Coley, B. (2023, July 4). Declarations of the past. Professions of the present. Engineering Independence.
https://www.engineeringindependence.com/ - Honneth, A., & Margalit, A. (2001). Recognition. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, 75, 111–139.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4107035 - Johnson, M. (2020). Undermining racial justice: How one university embraced inclusion and inequality. Cornell University Press.
https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501748585/undermining-racial-justice/ - Kersey, R. L. (2018, February 26). How to identify academically grieving students. NACADA.
https://nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Academic-Advising-Today/View-Articles/ArticleType/ArticleView/ArticleID/8207.aspx - King, J. E. (1991). Dysconscious racism: Ideology, identity, and the miseducation of teachers. The Journal of Negro Education, 60(2), 133–146. 10.2307/2295605
- La paperson. (2017). A third university is possible. University of Minnesota Press.
https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517902087/a-third-university-is-possible/ - Lee, W. C., London, J., Hawkins Ash, C. D., Pee, C. M., & Josiam, M. (2024). Broadening participation in engineering as a sociopolitical phenomenon: A systems perspective. Studies in Engineering Education, 5(1), 98–124. 10.21061/see.137
- Lee, W. C., Lutz, B. D., Matusovich, H. M., & Bhaduri, S. (2021). Student perceptions of learning about diversity and its place in engineering classrooms in the United States. International Journal of Engineering Education, 37(1), 147–162.
https://www.ijee.ie/contents/c370121.html - London, J., Lee, W. C., Phillips, C., Van Epps, A., & Watford, B. (2020). A systematic mapping of scholarship on broadening participation of African Americans in engineering and computer science. Journal of Women in Science and Engineering, 26(3), 199–243. 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2020027889
- Mangan, K. (2025, January 22). How a Trump executive order could upend colleges’ hiring practices. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-a-trump-executive-order-could-upend-colleges-hiring-practices - Mbembé, J., & Meintjes, L. (2003). Necropolitics. Public Culture, 15(1), 11–40.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/39984 - McClure, D. R. (2016). Processing history and American innocence: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley, Jr., and the 1965 Cambridge debate. James Baldwin Review, 2(1), 49–73. 10.7227/JBR.2.4
- McGee, E. O. (2021). Black, brown, bruised: How racialized STEM education stifles innovation. Harvard Education Press.
https://hep.gse.harvard.edu/9781682535356/black-brown-bruised/ - Meer, N. (2022). The cruel optimism of racial justice. Bristol University Press.
https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-cruel-optimism-of-racial-justice - Mejia, J. A., Villanueva Alarcón, I., Mejia, J., & Revelo, R. A. (2022). Legitimized tongues: Breaking the traditions of silence in mainstream engineering education and research. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 28(2), 53–77. 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2022036603
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2023). Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations: Beyond Broadening Participation. 10.17226/26803
- Riley, D. M. (2008). Engineering and social justice. Synthesis Lectures on Engineers, Technology, and Society, 3(1), 1–152. 10.2200/S00117ED1V01Y200805ETS007
- Russworm, T. M. (2016). Blackness is burning: Civil rights, popular culture, and the problem of recognition. Wayne State University Press.
https://wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814340516/ - Singh, N. P. (2012).
Racial formation in an age of permanent war . In D. HoSang, O. LaBennett & L. Pulido (Eds.), Racial formation in the twenty-first century (pp. 276–301). University of California Press. 10.1525/california/9780520273436.003.0013 - Slaton, A. (2010). Race, rigor and selectivity in U.S. engineering: The history of an occupational color line. Harvard University Press.
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674036192 - Slaughter, J. B., Tao, Y., & Pearson, W.
Jr , (Eds.) (2015). Changing the face of engineering: The African American experience. Johns Hopkins University Press.https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/11393/changing-face-engineering?srsltid=AfmBOoqAjCgjD3H94YFo1gWWlB12YSw-MRynI15VL3sksMQd4egpfUJJ - Stewart, D. (2017, March 29). Language of appeasement. Inside Higher Ed.
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/03/30/colleges-need-language-shift-not-one-you-think-essay - Stewart, L. (2021). The politics of Black joy: Zora Neale Hurston and neo-abolitionism. Northwestern University Press.
https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810144132/the-politics-of-black-joy/ - Táíwò, O. (2020). Being-in-the-room privilege: Elite capture and epistemic deference. The Philosopher, 108(4), 61–70.
https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/post/being-in-the-room-privilege-elite-capture-and-epistemic-deference - Táíwò, O. (2022). Elite Capture: How the powerful took over identity politics (and everything else). Haymarket Books.
https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1867-elite-capture - Thomas, D. J., Johnson, M. W., & Clark, L. (2024). You’re nobody until somebody kills you: the ingredients of Black death for social justice and D̶E̶I̶ DIE. Race Ethnicity and Education, 28(2), 227–242. 10.1080/13613324.2024.2306681
- Tonn, J., & Hira, A. (2024, June). Engineering as conflict: A framing for liberal engineering education. Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--47271
- Vakil, S. (2018). Ethics, identity and political vision: Toward a justice-centered approach to equity in Computer Science education. Harvard Educational Review, 88(1), 26–52. 10.17763/1943-5045-88.1.26
- Vakil, S., & Ayers, R. (2019). The racial politics of STEM education in the USA: Interrogations and explorations. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 22(4), 449–459. 10.1080/13613324.2019.1592831
- Weissman, S. (2025, April 01). Tribal colleges fear for their federal funding. Inside Higher Ed.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2025/04/01/tribal-colleges-fear-their-federal-funding - Willis, M. (2023). Unveiling opportunities: A comprehensive analysis of DEI initiatives for Black students at historically White institutions (Publication No. 30814888) [Doctoral dissertation, The University of Arizona]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
https://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/unveiling-opportunities-comprehensive-analysis/docview/2905659416/se-2 - Zarch, R., & McGill, M. (2023, June). Centering equity in an NSF engineering education alliance: Considerations for complex, multi stakeholder work. Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore, Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43147
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/see.220 | Journal eISSN: 2690-5450
Language: English
Page range: 91 - 97
Submitted on: Mar 25, 2025
Accepted on: May 9, 2025
Published on: Jun 4, 2025
Published by: Virginia Tech Publishing
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
© 2025 James Holly Jr., Amy Slaton, published by Virginia Tech Publishing
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.