ABSTRACT

As scholars and administrators have sharpened their focus on higher education beyond trends in access and graduation rates for underrepresented college students, there are growing calls for understanding the experiential dimensions of college life. This contributed book explores what actually happens on campus as students from an increasingly wide range of backgrounds enroll and share space. Chapter authors investigate how students of differing socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, and racial/ethnic groups navigate academic institutions alongside each other. Rather than treat diversity as mere difference, this volume provides dynamic analyses of how students come to experience both power and marginality in their campus lives. Each chapter comprises an empirical qualitative study from scholars engaged in cutting-edge research about campus life. This exciting book provides administrators and faculty new ways to think about students’ vulnerabilities and strengths.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction

Power and Marginality on Campus

part |71 pages

Identities in Practice

chapter |18 pages

At The Intersection of Race and Class

An Autoethnographic Study on the Experiences of a Southeast Asian American College Student

chapter |17 pages

“I Kind of Found My People”

Latino/a College Students' Search for Social Integration on Campus

chapter |17 pages

“That's What Makes Our Friendships Stronger”

Supportive Friendships Based on Both Racial Solidarity and Racial Diversity

part |104 pages

Institutional Interactions Around Power and Marginality

chapter |19 pages

Crisscrossing Boundaries

Variation in Experiences with Class Marginality Among Lower-Income, Black Undergraduates at an Elite College

chapter |16 pages

Les Miraculés

“The Magical Image of the Permanent Miracle”—Constructed Narratives of Self and Mobility from Working-Class Students at an Elite College

chapter |18 pages

Pulled In Or Pushed Out?

How Organizational Factors Shape the Social and Extra-Curricular Experiences of First-Generation Students

chapter |16 pages

Homo Academicus at Play

An Ethnographic Study of Becoming College Men in a First-Year Residence Hall

chapter |17 pages

Diversity Does Not Mean Equality

De Facto Rules that Maintain Status Inequality Among Black and White Fraternity Men

chapter |17 pages

Being “The Gay” On Campus

Developing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and/or Queer Identities in a College Context