Black Queer Students’ Counter-Stories of Invisibility in Undergraduate STEM as a White, Cisheteropatriarchal Space
Abstract
Black queer undergraduates experience invisibility at the juncture of anti-Black racism and cisheteropatriarchy in their campus environments. With the absence of research on queer students of color in undergraduate STEM, it has been unexplored how Black queer invisibility is reinforced and disrupted in uniquely racialized and cisheteronormative STEM spaces. Drawing on Black queer studies and a proposed framework of STEM education as a White, cisheteropatriarchal space, our study addresses this research gap by exploring four Black queer students’ experiences of oppression and agency in navigating invisibility as STEM majors. A counter-storytelling analysis reveals how curricular erasure and within-group peer tensions shaped variation in undergraduate Black queer students’ STEM experiences of invisibility. Findings inform implications for education research, practice, and policy.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
Battey D., Leyva L. (2016). A framework for understanding Whiteness in mathematics education. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 9(2), 49–80.
Benjamin R. (2019). Race after technology: Abolitionist tools for the New Jim Code. Polity.
Blockett R. (2017). “I think it’s very much placed on us”: Black queer men laboring to forge community at a predominantly White and (hetero)cisnormative research institution. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 30, 800–816.
Boudreau K., Bunyea L. R., DiBiasio D., Johnson R., Reidinger Z. (2019, April). Integrating inclusive pedagogy and experiential learning to support student empowerment, activism, and institutional change: A case study with transgender STEM students [Conference session]. 2019 CoNECD-The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity, Crystal City, Virginia.
Brockenbrough E. (2015). Queer of color agency in educational contexts: Analytic frameworks from a queer of color critique. Educational Studies, 51(1), 28–44.
Calabrese Barton A., Tan E. (2019). Designing for rightful presence in STEM: The role of making present practices. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 28(4/5), 616–658.
Cech E., Waidzunas T. (2011). Navigating the heteronormativity of engineering: The experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students. Engineering Studies, 3(1), 1–24.
Cech E. A., Waidzunas T. J. (2021). Systemic inequalities for LGBTQ professionals in STEM. Science Advances, 7(3), eabe0933.
Cooper K., Brownell S. (2016). Coming out in class: Challenges and benefits of active learning in a biology classroom for LGBTQIA students. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 15(3).
Crenshaw K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Identity politics, intersectionality, and violence against women. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
Davis J. (2020). Commentary on Black boys and men in STEM. Journal of African American Males in Education, 11(2), 7–11.
Dumas M., ross K. (2016). “Be real black for me”: Imagining BlackCrit in education. Urban Education, 51(4), 415–442.
Duran A. (2019). Queer and of color: A systematic literature review on queer students of color in higher education scholarship. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 12(4), 390–400.
Ferguson R. (2004). Aberrations in black: Toward a queer of color critique. University of Minnesota Press.
Garvey J. C., Mobley S. D. Jr, Summerville K. S., Moore G. T. (2019). Queer and trans* students of color: Navigating identity disclosure and college contexts. The Journal of Higher Education, 90(1), 150–178.
Garza A. (2014). A herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement [Web Log Post]. http://thefeministwire.com/2014/10/blacklivesmatter-2/.
George Mwangi C., Fries-Britt S., Peralta A., Daoud N. (2016). Examining intraracial dynamics and engagement between native-born and foreign-born Black collegians in STEM. Journal of Black Studies, 47(7) 1–22.
Goode-Cross D., Tager D. (2011). Negotiating multiple identities: How African-American gay and bisexual men persist at a predominantly White institution. Journal of Homosexuality, 58(9), 1235.
Gutiérrez R. (2017). Why mathematics (education) was late to the backlash party: The need for a revolution. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 10(2), 8–24.
Harding S. (1992). After the neutrality ideal: Science, politics, and “strong objectivity.” Social Research, 59(3), 567–587.
Higginbotham E. (1993). Righteous discontent: The women’s movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920. Harvard University Press.
Hughes B. (2017). “Managing by not managing”: How gay engineering students manage sexual orientation identity. Journal of College Student Development, 58(3), 385–401.
Jett C. C. (2022). “Third floor respect”: A black masculinist examination of Morehouse College’s mathematics learning community. The Journal of Higher Education, 93(2), 248–272.
Johnson E., Henderson M. (2005). Black queer studies. Duke University Press.
Joseph N., Haynes C., Cobb F. (2016). Interrogating Whiteness and relinquishing power: White faculty’s commitment to racial consciousness in STEM classrooms. Peter Lang.
Kersey E., Voigt M. (2021). Finding community and overcoming barriers: Experiences of queer and transgender postsecondary students in mathematics and other STEM fields. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 33, 733–756.
Kumashiro K. (2001). Troubling intersections of race and sexuality: Queer students of color and anti-oppressive education. Rowan and Littlefield Publishers.
Leonardo Z. (2004). The color of supremacy. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 36(2), 137–152.
Leyva L. A. (2021a). Black women’s counter-stories of resilience and within-group tensions in the White, patriarchal space of mathematics education. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 52(2), 117–151.
Leyva L. A. (Session organizer). (2021b). Future directions in queer of color scholarship [Paper symposium]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Virtual.
Leyva L. A., King V. E., Marshall B., McNeill R. T. (2021). Counter-storytelling queer women of color’s experiences of undergraduate STEM education as a White, cisheteropatriarchal space. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting.
Leyva L. A., Balmer B. R., Marshall B. L., McNeill R. T., Jefferson A., Roditti N. (2022). Characterizing agency among gender-expensive Black and Latin* students with queer sexual identities in undergraduate STEM [Paper presented]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.
Leyva L. A., McNeill R. T., Duran A. (2022). A queer of color challenge to neutrality in undergraduate STEM pedagogy as a White, cisheteropatriarchal space. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 28(4), 79–94.
Leyva L. A, McNeill R. T., Marshall B., Guzmán O. (2021). “It seems like they purposefully try to make as many kids drop”: An analysis of logics and mechanisms of racial-gendered inequality in introductory mathematics instruction. Journal of Higher Education, 92(5), 784–814.
Linley J., Renn K., Woodford M. (2018). Examining the ecological systems of LGBTQ STEM majors. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 24, 1–16.
Lorde A. (2007). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Penguin Books. (Original work published 1984).
Martin D., Price P., Moore R. (2019). Refusing systemic violence against Black children: Toward a Black liberatory mathematics education. In Davis J., Jett C. (Eds.), Critical race theory in mathematics education (pp. 32–55). Routledge.
Mattheis A., De Arellano D. C. R., Yoder J. B. (2020). A model of queer STEM identity in the workplace. Journal of Homosexuality, 67(13), 1839–1863.
McBride D. (2005). Why I hate Abercrombie & Fitch: Essays on race and sexuality. New York University Press.
McCready L. (2004). Understanding the marginalization of gay and gender non-conforming Black male students. Theory Into Practice, 43(2), 136–143.
McGee E. (2016). Devalued Black and Latino racial identities: A byproduct of college STEM culture? American Educational Research Journal, 53(6), 1626–1662.
McGee E., Bentley L. (2017). The equity ethic: Black and Latinx college students re-engineering STEM careers toward justice. American Journal of Education, 124, 1–36.
McGee E., Martin D. (2011). “You would not believe what I have to go through to prove my intellectual value!” Stereotype management among academically successful Black mathematics and engineering students. American Educational Research Journal, 48(6), 1347–1389.
Miller R., Downey M. (2020). Examining the STEM climate for queer students with disabilities. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 33(2), 169–181.
Miller R. A., Vaccaro A., Kimball E. W., Forester R. (2021). “It’s dude culture”: Students with minoritized identities of sexuality and/or gender navigating STEM majors. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 14(3), 340–352.
Milner H. R. IV (2007). Race, culture, and researcher positionality: Working through dangers seen, unseen, and unforeseen. Educational Researcher, 36(7), 388–400.
Misawa M. (2010). Musing on controversial intersections of positionality: A queer crit perspective in adult and continuing education. In Sheared V., et al. (Eds.), The handbook of race and adult education: A resource for dialogue on racism (pp. 187–199). Jossey-Bass.
Mobley S., Hall L. (2020). (Re)defining queer and trans* student retention and “success” at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice, 21(4), 497–519.
Morton T., Gee D., Woodson A. (2019). Being vs. becoming: Transcending STEM identity development through Afropessimism, moving towards a Black X consciousness in STEM. Journal of Negro Education, 88(3), 327–342.
Muñoz J. (1999). Disidentifications: Queers of color and the performance of politics. University of Minnesota Press.
Nicolazzo Z. (2016). “It’s a hard line to walk”: Black non-binary trans* collegians’ perspectives on passing, realness, and trans-normativity. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 29, 1173–1188.
Patton L. (2011). Perspectives on identity, disclosure, and the campus environment among African American gay and bisexual men at one historically Black college. Journal of College Student Development, 52(1), 77–100.
Patton L., Blockett R., McGowan B. (2020). Complexities and contradictions: Black lesbian gay, bisexual, and queer students’ lived realities across three urban HBCU contexts. Urban Education, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085920959128
Prescod-Weinstein C. (2020). Making Black women scientists under White empiricism: The racialization of epistemology in physics. Signs, 45(2), 421–447.
Renn K. A. (2010). LGBT and queer research in higher education. Educational Researcher, 39(2), 132–141.
Ross M. (2005). Beyond the closet as raceless paradigm. In Johnson E., Henderson M. (Eds.), Black queer studies: A critical anthology (pp. 161–189). Duke University Press.
Rubel L. H. (2016). Speaking up and speaking out about gender in mathematics. Mathematics Teacher, 109(6), 434–439.
Sengupta-Irving T., Vossoughi S. (2019). Not in their name: Re-interpreting discourses of STEM learning through the subjective experiences of minoritized girls. Race Ethnicity and Education, 22(4), 479–501.
Solórzano D. G., Yosso T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23–44.
Stinson D. W. (2008). Negotiating sociocultural discourses: The counter-storytelling of academically (and mathematically) successful African American male students. American Educational Research Journal, 45(4), 975–1010.
Strauss A., Corbin J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research techniques. Sage.
Swim J., Hyers L., Cohen L., Fitzgerald D., Bylsma W. (2003). African American college students’ experiences with everyday racism: Characteristics of and responses to these incidents. Journal of Black Psychology, 29(1), 38–67.
Wimberly G. (2015). LGBTQ issues in education: Advancing a research agenda. AERA.
Yeh C., Rubel L. (2020). Queering mathematics: Disrupting binary oppositions in mathematics pre-service teacher education. In Radakovic N., Jao L. (Eds.), Borders in mathematics pre-service teacher education (pp. 227–243). Springer, Cham.
Yin R. K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods (3rd ed.). Sage.
Biographies
LUIS A. LEYVA is an assistant professor of mathematics education at Vanderbilt University – Peabody College, PMB 230, GPC, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203; email: [email protected]. His research examines narratives of oppression and agency among undergraduate students from historically marginalized groups to uncover interlocking functions of anti-Black racism, White supremacy, and cisheteropatriarchy in STEM educational contexts. He is the corresponding author.
R. TAYLOR MCNEILL is a doctoral student in mathematics education at Vanderbilt University – Peabody College, PMB 230, GPC, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203. Their research focuses on faculty engagement in equity-oriented instructional and departmental change in postsecondary mathematics. They hold a doctorate in mathematics.
B R. BALMER holds a master’s degree in community development and action from Vanderbilt University – Peabody College, PMB 230, GPC, 230 Appleton Place; Nashville, TN 37203. Their research, grounded in anthropology and community psychology, advances equity in production and dissemination of knowledge and information by and for communities.
BRITTANY L. MARSHALL is a doctoral candidate in mathematics education at Rutgers University, Graduate School of Education, 10 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. A former middle and high school mathematics teacher, Brittany conducts research on middle school mathematics teaching and mathematics identity development among Black girls.
V. ELIZABETH KING is a doctoral student at the University of Georgia, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, 305 Sanford Drive, Athens, GA 30602. Her LatCrit- and intersectionality-informed research rests at intersections of traumatic stress, human rights, and child memory, with a focus on policy and practice relations for historically marginalized communities.
ZANDER D. ALLEY holds a bachelor’s degree in human and organizational development from Vanderbilt University – Peabody College, PMB 230, GPC, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203. He is a middle school mathematics teacher. His research and professional work in education focus on equity in mathematics education for historically marginalized populations.
Supplementary Material
Supplemental material files:
Summary
Supplemental material for this article is available online.
Resources
File (sj-pdf-1-aer-10.3102_00028312221096455.pdf)
- Download
- 390.23 KB
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published online: May 26, 2022
Issue published: October 2022
Keywords
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in American Educational Research Journal.
VIEW ALL JOURNAL METRICSArticle usage*
Total views and downloads: 2887
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Altmetric
See the impact this article is making through the number of times it’s been read, and the Altmetric Score.
Learn more about the Altmetric Scores
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 14 view articles Opens in new tab
Crossref: 4
- LGBT + academics’ and PhD students’ experiences of visibility in STEM:...
- Looking through a Prism: A Systematic Review of LGBTQ+ STEM Literature
- Cultivating Black liberatory spaces in science, technology, engineerin...
- Queering Disciplinary Languages: A Critical Orientation to Languages i...
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Get access
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
loading institutional access options
AERA members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.
AERA members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
