Dr. Stephen Fernandez Works Toward Solidarity and Equitable Solutions

Content

Dr. Stephen Fernandez is the Engineering Engagement Specialist within the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). In this role, he focuses on outreach and support for underrepresented students, helping bring these students to the College of Engineering and supporting them once they arrive on campus. 
 
Fernandez’s work is a crucial counterbalance to the many broadly and deeply engrained societal forces that can make underrepresented students feel less valued and less welcome. Sadly, these forces manifest on the local level as well. In response to a malicious, anonymous act of hate speech directed at Black students last year, Fernandez organized a letter of solidarity on behalf of the Latine/Latinx community at UMass Amherst.

With this letter, Fernandez wished first and foremost to express love and solitary for the Black community. Furthermore, Fernandez commented, “an attack on them is an attack on us”—not only because hate speech directed at one group opens the door for similar hateful acts directed at other groups, but also because “there are a lot of Latinx/Latiné people who are Black and Black/African heritage is strong in many Latinx/Latiné communities,” a fact that Fernandez highlighted and celebrated in the letter. 
 
Fernandez believes that perpetrators of hate speech are often “wounded people.” In his words, “hate is a poison that fills you with violence. We need to figure out what has wounded these people so we can help them heal and help them learn how to heal the damage they have inflicted on others.” Fernandez hopes that expressions of love and solidarity can be healing for victims of hate speech, and perhaps, on some level, seeing these models of love and solidarity can even sow the seeds of healing for those “wounded people” who might otherwise consider perpetrating hateful acts.  
 
Fernandez has a background in energy engineering, which includes a Ph.D. in Renewable Energy Engineering and experience with sustainable energy installations in Latin America, and this background informs his work at the DEI. One recent example of this came when he saw an early screening of the film Powerlands, directed by Camille Manybeads Tso. Powerlands explores the displacement of Indigenous people and the environmental damage caused by energy companies—including, in some cases, green energy companies.  

Quickly recognizing the importance of the film, Fernandez arranged to have it screened at UMass. It will be showing for free during the last two weeks of November, and on December 1st in the Carney Family Auditorium in Furcolo Hall there will be a showing of the film followed by a discussion (click here for Eventbrite registration).
 
Fernandez notes that the film captures a tension that is uniquely pertinent to the College of Engineering: “as engineers, we often solve problems without thinking about who is impacted by our solutions. Powerlands reminds us that we need to be more conscious about solving problems equitably.”  
 
In this sense, the film dovetails with Fernandez’s work for the DEI, which exists at the intersection of engineering and just social practices.