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In this quotation from a chapter titled "Theory as Liberatory Practice," prolific writer, scholar, and social change agent bell hooks narrates her coming to understand theory as a positive force that may serve as a pathway to healing from the injustices and pain of life' s circumstances. However, she reminds the reader, theory does not fulfill this function by definition or on its own. Instead, theory becomes healing only when the focus of theorizing is centered on issues and questions that elevate larger historical, social, and cultural structures that pattern a diverse array of lived experiences. In other words, when theories are created through a critical lens, the possibilities for healing, liberation, and radical social change are revealed. This way of looking at theories, as responding to what theorists ask them to do, helps frame the evolution of student development theory and provides a scaffolding for understanding how the theories that undergird practice in higher education and student affairs reflect the sociohistorical contexts in which they were created, the nature of the questions held up for concern, and the commitments and values of those individuals developing theories. It also illuminates the potential of theories to indeed become liberatory practice if scholars and practitioners "direct our theorizing towards this end" (hooks, 1994, p. 61).In this chapter, we adopt from feminist scholars the metaphor of "waves" (Humm, 1995) to capture the shifts in the kinds of questions and concerns addressed by student development theories over time. We locate critical perspectives on student development theory in a larger context of the evolution of these theories from "first wave" (for example, foundational, NEW DIRECTIONS FOR STUDENT SERVICES, no. 154, Summer 2016

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A qualitative study of 13 self-identified Black and African American college students across three institutions revealed important findings relevant for understanding the multifaceted and complex ways in which these students both perceived and made meaning of the multiple facets of their identities. Implications for the ways in which social identity factors are seen as cooperative and coherent are discussed. Also, provocative findings related to the incorporation of non-unitary facets of identity are shared.