Use of qualitative methods to investigate engineering epistemology, engineering identity, and boundary work to understand better how to make engineering an inclusive discipline. Crossing the boundaries of engineering education, science and technology studies, and women's studies, this research focuses on how, what, and why we (engineers and engineering educators) understand engineering to be.

Riley, Donna, Amy Slaton, and Alice L. Pawley,"Social Justice and Inclusion: Women and Minorities in Engineering." In the Cambridge Handbook of Engineering Education Research, Aditya Johri and Barbara Olds eds. Invited contribution. Cambridge University Press 2014. (Book chapter)

Pawley, Alice L. “What counts as ‘engineering’?: Towards a Redefinition.” Chapter 3, pp. 59-85. In Engineering and Social Justice: In the University and Beyond. Purdue University Press, 2012

Pawley, Alice L. “Universalized narratives: patterns in how faculty define ‘engineering." Journal of Engineering Education 98(4) pp. 309-319. 2009. (Tier 1)