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Journal Articles

• Wright, C., Harbison, M., Tucker-Raymond, E., Edouard, K., Meehan, S., Cameron, T., & Schafer, G. (2025). Racialized spatial imaginaries: Authoring an elementary school teacher of engineering identity. Science Education, 109, 157–177.
• Wright, C.G., Likely, R., Allen-Handy, A., & Flowers, A. (2021). “I am able to have a different lens and different approach:” A critical examination of how Black female engineering teachers utilize and create counter narratives. Journal of African American Women & Girls in Education, 1(2), 119–140.
• Wright, C.G., & Riley, A. (2021). Mitigating the need for resiliency for Black girls: Re-imagining the cultural brokering through a lens of science as white property. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 16(2), 495–500.
• Champion, D.N., Tucker-Raymond, E., Millner, A., Gravel, B., Wright, C.G., Likely, R., Allen-Handy, A., & Dandridge, T.M. (2020). (Designing for) Learning computational STEM and arts integration in culturally sustaining learning ecologies. Information and Learning Sciences, 121(9/10), 785–804.
• Wright, C.G., Likely, R., Wendell, K.B., Paugh, P.P., & Smith, E. (2020). Recognition and identity in an elementary professional learning community: A case study. Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research, 10(1), 1–11.
• Wright, C.G. (2019). Constructing a collaborative critique-learning environment for exploring science through improvisational performance. Urban Education, 54(9), 1319–1348.
• Wright, C.G., Wendell, K.B., & Paugh, P.P. (2018). “Just put it together to make no commotion:” Reimagining urban elementary students’ participation in engineering design practices. Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science, & Technology, 6(3), 285–301.
• Paugh, P.P., Wendell, K.B., & Wright, C.G. (2018). Elementary engineering as a synergistic site for disciplinary and linguistic learning in an urban classroom. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, & Practice, 67(1), 261–278.
• Wendell, K.B., Wright, C.G., & Paugh, P.P. (2017). Reflective decision-making in elementary students’ engineering design. Journal of Engineering Education, 106(3), 356–397.

Book Chapters

• Paugh, P.P., Wendell, K.B., & Wright, C.G. (in press). The face-to-face language of engineering design teams in urban elementary classrooms. In A. Wilson-Lopez, E. Tucker-Raymond, A. Esquinca, & J.A. Meija (Eds.), The Literacies of Design: Studies of Equity & Imagination in Engineering & Making. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.
• Likely, R., & Wright, C.G. (accepted). The journey of decolonization as a scientist and science education researcher. In J. Rodriguez & R. Suriel (Eds.), Supporting STEM Education with Limited Resources: Research-Based & Practical Suggestions for Advocacy & Transformative Change. Springer Publishing.
• Wendell, K.B., Kendall, A., Portsmore, M., Wright, C.G., Jarvin, L., & Rogers, C. (2014). Embedding elementary school science instruction in engineering design problem solving. In S. Purzer, J. Strobel, & M. Cardella (Eds.), Engineering in Pre-College Settings: Synthesizing Research, Policy, and Practices. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.
• Wright, C.G. (2013). “I thought the smaller the wave was the louder the sound was:” Highlighting negotiation in developing meta-representational competence. In B. Brizuela & B. Gravel (Eds.), “Show me what you know:” Exploring representations across STEM disciplines. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Keynote Presentations

• Wright, C.G. (2022, February 11). Dream Chasers: Conceptualizing STEM education through a lens of dreamspaces. Invited Keynote Address at University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley’s (UTRGV) 5th Annual STEM Education Conference, South Padre Island, TX.
• Wright, C.G. (2021, June 11). “The place where dreams are made:” Recognizing the practice of dream chasing as Black excellence. Invited Presidential Session focused on Black Excellence in the Learning Sciences at the International Conference for the Learning Sciences (ICLS). Virtual Conference.
• Wright, C.G. (2021, February 27). Conceptualizing dreamspaces in science and engineering: Reimagining our role in equity and justice. Invited Keynote Address to the Michigan Science Teachers’ Association (MSTA) Annual Conference. Virtual Conference.

Funded Grants

• Workshop for Writing Grants for Early Career Scholars in STEM and Learning Sciences Focused on Racial Equity, PI • 2022–2023 • NSF #2133577 • Funded: $88,565.00
• Collaborative Research: Using Culturally Sustaining Learning Environments to Explore Computational Learning & Identity, PI • 2019–2022 • NSF #1842272 • Funded: $856,414.00
• CAREER: Investigating the Engineering Expansive Learning Spaces for Boys of Color, PI • 2016–2022 • NSF #1554194 • Funded: $477,436.00

• Urban Education
• Engineering Education
• Science Education
• Elementary Teacher Education
• Learning Sciences
• Critical Ethnographies
• Design Discourse

• 91��Ƭ��, School of Education (present)
  Assistant Professor
• University of Tennessee (2013-2016)
  Assistant Professor
• TERC / Cheche Konnen Center (2011-2013)
  Post-Doctoral Fellow
• Maryland Mathematics, Engineering, & Science Achievement (MESA) Program (2004-2006)
  Executive Director
• Baltimore City (MD) Public School System (1996-2004) 
  Teacher

Christopher G. Wright, PhD is an Associate Professor of STEM Education in the Department of Teaching, Learning, & Curriculum (TLC) at 91��Ƭ��. Christopher is also Co-Founder and Co-Director of the In/formal Learning Linking Engineering, Science, & Technology Lab (The ILLEST Lab). Christopher’s research focuses on reimagining, designing, and studying STEM learning environments that affirm, cultivate, and build upon the cultural, linguistic, and intellectual resources that young people bring to engaging in engineering, science, and making. Understanding that learning in k-12 contexts inevitably takes place at powered boundaries of culture, race, class, & language, this research highlights the experiences of those from communities that have been historically excluded from engineering and science. Specifically situated research that privileges asset-based frameworks, Christopher utilizes a variety of research methodologies, including the (a) deployment of critical ethnographic methodologies for exploring and uncovering rich intellectual and linguistic resources that Black children draw upon while engaging in and navigating STEM spaces and (b) design and study of model STEM learning environments that support learning and identity development.