Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7415-091X

Date Available

7-9-2024

Year of Publication

2024

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Education

Department/School/Program

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

First Advisor

Kenneth Maurice Tyler

Abstract

Critical whiteness scholars have described whiteness as a system of oppression that privileges White identities above others and perpetuates White supremacy. On the college campus, institutional, social, and historical norms reinforce the educational status quo and work together to maintain a system of whiteness that marginalizes Black students. This study investigated perceptions of whiteness held by student participants who self-identify as Black undergraduate students. Through focus group interviews, participants were asked to share their lived experiences with whiteness on the college campus. With the words of the participants, I reveal how campus standards that align with White Eurocentric norms devalue the contributions of students who do not fit these standards and normalize student behaviors that perpetuate White supremacy. I explore participant reactions to behaviors they identify and classify as expressions of whiteness to better understand how Black undergraduate students experience whiteness on a college campus. With this, I offer suggestions to mitigate classroom, instructional, and campus-based behaviors, spaces, and encounters that offend and alienate Black undergraduate students.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2024.372

Funding Information

  • University of Kentucky, Arvle and Ellen Thacker Turner Research Fund (2023-2024)
  • University of Kentucky, Ally Development Workshop Student Grant (2020), research team
  • University of Kentucky, Center for Equality and Social Justice (2019), research team
  • University of Kentucky, Women's Forum Fall 2016, Employee Education Assistance Program
  • University of Kentucky, Leslie Martin Endowed Fellowship, (2014-2015)

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