People Like Me: Intersectional Physics Identity Development of Multiply-Marginalized Students

Studies that dive into the ways physics students build their physics identity are typically conducted at Predominately White Institutions, and focus solely on the physics part of physics identity. While these investigations are immensely useful to understand one’s relationship to physics, very few of them include, or center, the intersections of gender, sexuality, or race that have a direct impact on physics identity. Additionally, the studies that do investigate social identities tend to generalize the experiences of “underrepresented minority students,” which leads to an erasure of many students unique and extraordinary lived experiences, as well as ignores students who may be overrepresented but still marginalized.

In our research we invite multiply-marginalized physics students—Black, Indigenous, Women of Color, LGBTQ+ women (including trans women) as well as gender nonconforming students— who study physics at Hispanic Serving Institutions to participate in semi-structured interviews about their unique experiences in physics and how their social identities affect their physics identity. All students were asked about their perceptions of their physics environments, their available support systems, and how they would describe a physicist. The analysis examines the narratives using intersectionality, critical race theory, critical queer theory, and decolonization theories, to fully understand the extraordinary lived experiences of our participants.

Throughout our analysis we found the themes of community, belonging, recognition, and professor support come appear regularly, and of students that studied at Texas State University specifically, found that the Physics Learning Assistant (LA) Program had multiple positive impacts on students. Participation as an LA aided in the development of an intersectional physics identity for the interviewees and initiated a cultural transformation within the department. We will present data highlighting the academic and social programmatic elements of the LA program that aid in the physics identity development, physics community participation, and academic success of these students.