Vanderbilt University
In 2016, the blockbuster hit, Hidden Figures, prompted several timely yet historical conversations in science education and science adjacent classrooms, and home spaces. While the movie created an opportunity for entertainment and education, it also offered practitioners another opportunity to contend with inquiries regarding representation of minoritized communities and epistemologies in/out of STEM spaces. Leveraging Critical Race Feminism, this plenary session shares research centering the experiences of Black girls and women in formal and informal science as a means of re-articulating what is science education and who is a scientist.
Mississippi native, Dr. ReAnna S. Roby, is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Fisk-Vanderbilt Regional Center of Excellence in Broadening Participation. As a first-generation scholar, Roby's background as a Black Southern woman in science greatly informs her service, research, and teaching – praxis. A graduate of Alcorn State University, Washington State University, and the University of Texas at San Antonio, Roby's scholarship employs Critical Race Feminism, Curriculum Theory, and Critical Qualitative methodologies to explore the ways in which the narratives of Black women and girls in science (formally and informally) could be used to reconceptualize and inform science, science education, and policy.