Newsmail #64, 2023-06-27
Dear all,
This week I’m in Baltimore attending the 130th ASEE Annual Conference (www.asee.org). 2169 papers are presented disseminating research in engineering education. About 3000 delegates from mainly USA, but I’ve managed to find a colleague from KTH here as well. With 30-40 parallel sessions, it’s easy to find something of interest. So far, I have mainly joined discussions and workshops on change management (in engineering education), on broadened recruitment, diversity, cultural homelessness, intersectionality and cultural change in general.
In many ways, I think we are well ahead in Sweden, at KTH, but in other ways there is still so much that needs to be done. I wrote a similar newsmail one year ago, a reflection on how we could learn from research in areas such as minoritization processes and racial and ethnic diversity in general.
What I do note, in a comparison between our environment at KTH, and this conference, is that the quota of research, presentations, workshops etc that relate to gender equality, diversity, equal treatment here at the annual conference is increasing every year. More and more people attend these sessions, the number of sessions increase. The majority of the keynotes this year relate to these issues. When I compare with KTH, it’s the opposite. This makes me a bit sad.
Next week I’ll visit Stanford University, I’ll spend some time with the colleagues and the environment where I stayed after my PhD degree a looong time ago. I promise, I won’t feel sad next week.
If you are leaving for summer holiday, I wish you a nice summer.
Best,
Martin