STEM Asianization and the Racialization of the Educational Experiences of Asian American College Students - July 2024

Oct 15, 2026

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This working paper clarifies how STEM shapes the racialization of Asian Americans in college educational experiences. Grounded in critical race theory and scholarship on Asian American racialization, it proposes a conceptual framework named STEM Asianization to explain how STEM ideology supports model minority narratives. It outlines impacts such as erasing intersectional minoritized experiences, dehumanizing Asian Americans through a “bamboo ceiling,” portraying them as perpetual foreigners during crises, and labeling nonconforming students as failed minorities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages32

Reading Time1 h 21 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Conceptual Framework and Theoretical Foundations

STEM Asianization and the Racialization of the Educational Experiences of Asian American College Students WCER Working Paper No. 2024-2 July 2024 Matthew Wolfgram, Stacey J. Lee, Chundou Her, Kong Pheng Pha, Bailey Smolarek, and Choua Xiong Wisconsin Center for Education Research University of Wisconsin–Madison [mswolfgram@wisc.edu](mswolfgram@wisc.edu) Key words: Asian Americans, racialization, STEM Asianization, model minority discourse, colorblind meritocracy Suggested citation: Wolfgram, M., Lee, S. J., Her, C., Pha, K. P, Smolarek, B., & Xiong, C. (2024) . STEM Asianization and the racialization of the educational experiences of Asian American college students (WCER Working Paper No. 2024-2). University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Center for Education Research. © 2024 by Matthew Wolfgram, Stacey J. Lee, Chundou Her, Kong Pheng Pha, Bailey Smolarek, and Choua Xiong. All rights reserved. Funding for the research presented in this paper was provided by grants from the National Science Foundation (\#2201693) and from the Wisconsin Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. Any opinions, findings, or conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies, WCER, or cooperating institutions. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for noncommercial purposes by any means, provided that the above copyright notice appears on all copies. WCER working papers are available at [https://wcer.wisc.edu/publications/working-papers](https://wcer.wisc.edu/publications/working-papers). STEM Asianization and the Racialization of the Educational Experiences of Asian American College Students Matthew Wolfgram, Stacey J. Lee, Chundou Her, Kong Pheng Pha, Bailey Smolarek, and Choua Xiong ABSTRACT This article clarifies historical and sociocultural factors that impact the role of STEM in the racialization of Asian Americans. Drawing on critical race and other theories of Asian American racialization, and a review of empirical research on the experiences of Asian American college students in STEM, we develop a conceptual framework called STEM Asianization that highlights the role of STEM ideology in the model minority racialization of Asian Americans. Consequences for Asian American students include (1) erasure of the intersectional experiences of minoritized Asian American students; (2) dehumanization of Asian Americans and establishment of a bamboo ceiling; (3) representation of Asian Americans as a perpetual foreigner/Yellow Peril during times of cultural and political crisis; and (4) representation of Asian Americans who cannot or do not conform to the STEM achievement narrative as a failed minority. We argue that STEM Asianization reproduces White supremacy by ideologically reinforcing the colorblind meritocracy of STEM institutions in the United States. STEM Asianization and the Racialization of the Educational Experiences of Asian American College Students Matthew Wolfgram, Stacey J. Lee, Chundou Her, Kong Pheng Pha, Bailey Smolarek, and Choua Xiong Introduction Within the popular imagination, Asians and Asian Americans represent the racial “face” of STEM. Indeed, Asian American students are often characterized as being overrepresented in STEM and, in consequence, are assumed to not face any barriers to STEM education attainment. The association between STEM and Asian student identity is pervasive in discourses about STEM education, yet it is also undertheorized (Chen & Buell, 2018) . We take up the challenge to theorize Asian Americans in STEM by focusing on the role of STEM in the process of Asian racialization since the mid-twentieth century. We develop a conceptual framework for the analysis of the experiences of Asian Americans in STEM by drawing on and extending the scholarship in AsianCrit (Iftikar & Museus, 2018; Museus & Iftikar, 2013), which highlights the specificity of Asian American racialized experi

FAQs

What is the STEM Asianization framework proposed in the paper?

The paper proposes STEM Asianization as a conceptual framework highlighting how STEM ideology functions within the model minority racialization of Asian Americans.

What consequences does STEM Asianization have for Asian American students in STEM?

The paper describes consequences including erasure of intersectional experiences, dehumanization and establishment of a “bamboo ceiling,” crisis-era portrayal as perpetual foreigners/Yellow Peril, and depiction of nonconforming students as failed minorities.

How does the paper connect STEM institutions to White supremacy?

It argues that STEM Asianization reproduces White supremacy by ideologically reinforcing the colorblind meritocracy of STEM institutions in the United States.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Melati