“I can be the weird STEM kid who is also gay”: Queer rightful presence in STEM making

Background: STEM participation is often associated with the disenfranchisement of historically marginalized individuals. Disrupting these standing injustices to establish rightful presence with equitable opportunity, access, and cultural standing to shape and pursue STEM endeavors in ways that are inclusive of individuals’ identities is a critical objective. However, research to understand and facilitate STEM experiences of queer youth what are also navigating their own relationships with gender- and heteronormativity is limited. Making—employing STEM to design artifacts in an informal learning environment—can disrupt conventional approaches to STEM activity in ways that support inclusive STEM engagement through crafting and personalized design. Method: This social design experiment examines the ways in which the design of maker activities and spaces can support queer rightful presence within STEM spaces. Findings: We found that maker communities can frame and collectively engage issues of identity formulation that are both dynamic and fluid in nature as part of bolstering STEM affinity. As participants’ multifaceted identities unfolded through making projects that deliberately invited identity into design, they established rightful presence for intertwined queer and STEM identities. Contribution: This study extends the rightful presence framework to engage fluid, queer identities and illustrates making rightful presence practices that deliberately engage multifaceted identities.