#861: “Crafting” an Engineering Identity: Intersections between Engineering Undergraduates’ Identities as Crafters and Engineers

Crafting and engineering, and the practices they entail, have an interwoven and gendered history. Engineering undergraduate students with prior experience in crafting can bring these practices into their engineering education, but those resources and facets of their identities are not always recognized by both themselves and members of their communities. In this work, we interviewed ten engineering undergraduates about their experiences with crafting and engineering and how it informed their identities as engineers. Our findings suggest that students see their crafting and engineering work as connected and that they inform one another. Furthermore, their insights point to factors that can influence the formation of their identities as engineers, artists, and/or crafters. This work carries implications for the intentional inclusion of crafting in engineering education to foster creativity and attract and retain more students to the discipline.