Critcal Mixed Race Studies Scholarly Conference Paper

This past summer, I presented a co-authored paper “Multiracial Belonging and Placemaking in Student Organizations at Minority Serving Institutions” with Brendon Soltis (Michigan State University) at the Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference at Ohio State University. This was my first ever interdisciplinary conference as a researcher and scholar. In this scholarly paper session, I continue to distill my research about multiracial college student involvement. In this paper, my colleague and I explored findings from a qualitative narrative inquiry which examined how sixteen Multiracial college students found a sense of belonging in student organizations at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Participants sought membership in organizations for identity salience, cultural transmission, and connectedness. In seeking membership, they negotiated multiple racial identities and locations in traditionally monoracial spaces at various MSIs. However, these placemaking experiences were fraught with difficulties related to monoracism and racialized microaggressions. Students eventually cultivated a sense of belonging by curating an intimate cohort of friends through their organizational involvement. These findings have implications for higher education professionals who work with Multiracial students across involvement contexts. This paper has now been submited for publication consideration.