This study applied social exchange theory to examine 74 faculty members’ perceptions of culturally diverse mentor training activities at 10 undergraduate institutions in the early stages of implementing grant-funded interventions focused on determining the most effective ways to engage and retain racially diverse students in biomedical research.
Literature exploring postsecondary undergraduate student experiences at the nexus of queerness, trans * ness, and Indigeneity remains relatively scant, as does scholarship taking a geospatial lens to understand the experiences of trans * collegians. Given the settler colonial history of higher education as a field and the colonial nature of the relationships between universities and the land they occupy, it is important to center Indigenous students and their relationship with land to understand the ways institutions perpetuate oppression against Indigenous students, particularly those holding multiple systemically minoritized identities. This qualitative, theoretically driven piece explores the narrative of Alonso (pseudonym), a nonbinary, genderfluid, Indigenous, biracial undergraduate Student of Color, to interrogate how they perform and understand their gender identity across a multitude of spaces. Drawing from geography, anthropology, queer theory, and Indigenous studies, I build a critical, queer understanding of space and mobility as a theoretical lens through which I analyze Alonso's experiences both on and off of their college campus. By ascertaining the conceived, perceived, and lived spatial meaning Alonso derives from these spaces, it becomes possible to explore how they make sense of their various social identities, how these identities are performed in collegiate academic spaces, and how their identities shape their collegiate academic journey as an Indigenous, trans * Student of Color. Findings underscore the potential of geospatial frameworks in scholarship with trans * collegians and speak to the importance of decentering white, Eurocentric ways of knowing both in the classroom and in research.
Although undergraduate (UG) computer science (CS) programs are increasingly engaged in diversification efforts, this work is rarely critically informed or assessed. We conducted a qualitative secondary analysis of interviews with 55 campus leaders at four U.S. institutions of higher education, to examine how diversity initiatives broadened the participation of undergraduate Students of Color (SoC) in CS majors. We found that racial equity work happened predominantly in three types of counterspaces-professional conferences, campus identity centers, and student organizations-that explicitly centered and affirmed students' racialized identities, provided community, expanded students' professional and academic networks, and supported students to navigate the racial exclusion prevalent in their classes, the department, and in industry. However, our framework of diversity ideology exposed how counterspaces and their leaders of Color operated with little to no support from computing departments, were peripherally positioned outside of broader diversity efforts, and were ultimately inhibited from transforming the dominant culture in CS that privileged whiteness. We argue that studying and amplifying the intentional, impactful labor performed by counterspaces is necessary to address persistent racial disparities in computing.
In this article, Jessica C. Harris, Nadeeka Karunaratne, and Justin A. Gutzwa examine the modalities Women of Color student survivors perceive as helpful in healing from campus sexual assault. Existing scholarship on healing from campus sexual assault largely relies on the reduction of psychological symptoms of trauma, an understanding that is often race-neutral and founded on the narratives of white women. Centering the experiences of 34 Women of Color undergraduate student survivors, this qualitative study reimagines healing through a race-conscious lens and positions it as a community-oriented and culturally contextual process that is often at odds with the ways US institutions of higher education aim to support survivors of sexual assault on their campuses. The authors’ findings guide implications for how institutions and individuals can account for and support student survivors’ multiple and intersecting identities in their healing journeys and also inform future research that centers minoritized students’ experiences with sexual assault in postsecondary contexts.
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