PAST Projects & Research

This internally funded pilot study aimed to initiate a new research agenda focused on the educational experiences of disabled undergraduate Latinxs in STEM, specifically those pursuing engineering degrees. This research built upon prior work, as Dr. Krystal Peralez (Executive Director of TAME) and Dr. Lisette Torres-Gerald (Senior Researcher at TERC) wrote a book chapter articulating what the large gap within STEM education literature related to race/ethnicity and disability in engineering (Torres & Peralez, 2024). Over the course of a year, Torres-Gerald and Peralez developed relationships with engineering departments at colleges and universities that serve large populations of Latinx students (Hispanic-serving institutions) and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to then recruit and conduct interviews with 6 disabled Latinx undergraduates in engineering. This project led to larger researcher projects focused on the intersection of race and disability in STEM and higher education.