Coming to act with tables: Tracing the laminated trajectories of an engineer-in-the-making

Abstract

Using theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches that situate the ontogenesis of practices and persons in histories of reuse across heterogeneous times, places, and representational media, this article examines the development of one undergraduate's ability to act with inscriptions in ways valued by engineers. Based on semi-structured and text-based interviews, ethnographic observations, and collection of texts and artifacts conducted over 3 academic years and that also reach back to her early childhood, the analysis traces the co-researcher's laminated history of acting with tables across a number of engagements, including undergraduate engineering courses, scheduling daily activities, inventing and arranging fan-fiction novels, and solving puzzles for fun. In addition to illuminating the rich history of textual activities that come to shape her use of tables as an engineer-in-the-making, the analysis also makes visible the crucial role emergent “laminated trajectories” (Roozen, Woodard, Kline, & Prior, 2015) play in the ongoing production of literate practices and identities. Ultimately, the article argues for increased theoretical and methodological attention to the ways people's participation with seemingly discrete, autonomous discursive engagements shape the pace and path of their historical becoming across the assumed boundaries of everyday, disciplinary, and professional worlds.