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Racial Habitus and Diversity: A Historical Comparative Analysis Amongst College Alumni

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posted on 2021-07-07, 00:00 authored by Kayla Simone Knox

Initiatives to encourage and maintain diversity within higher education have been in place for decades. However, the vagueness of the definition of 'diversity' has left white and minority students to have drastically different experiences at PWIs. This project explores the way that racial habitus affects student interactions, and, thus, their conceptualizations of diversity. Specifically, this project intends to answer three questions: 1) 1) how does habitus influence conceptualizations of diversity?; 2) are these conceptualizations similar or different amongst black and white students?; and 3) how do these conceptualizations change over time? Ultimately, I find: racial isolation leads to structural conceptualizations of diversity; black and white students seem to conceptualize diversity similarly, but with different effects; and structural conceptualizations of diversity have remained consistent over time. This project makes several important sociological contributions to racial habitus, meaning-making around diversity, and to diversity initiatives in higher education.

History

Date Modified

2021-09-08

CIP Code

  • 45.1101

Research Director(s)

Calvin R. Zimmermann

Committee Members

Amy Langenkamp

Degree

  • Master of Arts

Degree Level

  • Master's Thesis

Alternate Identifier

1264419875

Library Record

6106616

OCLC Number

1264419875

Program Name

  • Sociology

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