Title
Academic Feminist Activism on a Traditional STEM Campus: The Case of a Feminist Newspaper at MTU
Date of Award
2015
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture (PhD)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Humanities
Advisor 1
Patricia Sotirin
Committee Member 1
Elizabeth Flynn
Committee Member 2
Ann Brady
Committee Member 3
Audrey Mayer
Abstract
This study addresses the problem of gender hostility on a STEM-focused university campus. I engage with current debates over the definition and purpose of feminism, in order to argue for the necessity of feminist activism in engineering education, with a particular focus on applications for Michigan Tech. Theoretically, I locate gender hostility in a long-running rejection of “the feminine” in STEM-based ways of knowing, curricula, and academic institutions. Drawing on Dorothy Smith’s conceptualization of “ruling relations,” I trace the discursive construction of femininity and the masculine/feminine dichotomy as seen in institutional forms, web pages, and student writing on social media.
I consider the efficacy of undergraduate student activism on STEM-focused campuses in countering hostility toward the feminine. Specifically, in this project, I focus on the founding and accomplishments of a Michigan Tech feminist student newspaper: Beyond the Glass Ceiling. I set this newspaper within a history of student-initiated feminist publications at Michigan Tech, including The Technobabe Times and UNDER_WIRE. In chronicling the experiences of the students who wrote, designed, and edited the eponymous newspaper, I analyze how they understood and responded to institutionally embedded, textual, and contextual discourses about gender and feminism. My analysis admits the limitations but asserts the potential of undergraduate women’s counter-hegemonic struggle against the gendered ruling relations governing a STEM education.
In the conclusion, I argue for Martha Nussbaum’s philosophical articulation of justice and gender as a useful platform for developing strategies to address gender hostility in STEM education for the good of all students.
Recommended Citation
Snyder, Katie, "Academic Feminist Activism on a Traditional STEM Campus: The Case of a Feminist Newspaper at MTU", Open Access Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2015.