Toward a New Understanding of Campus Racial Conflict: Organizational Responses in Postsecondary Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Issues in Conflict Resolution and Violence Prevention

Abstract

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to provide an understanding of campus racial conflict, a term used to capture the process of recognizing and responding to racial incidents in higher education. Scholars who write about racial conflict refer to the phenomenon as incidents (Farrell & Jones, 1988; Feagin, 1992), aggression (Feagin, 1992), microaggressions (Solorzano et al., 2000; Sue, 2010), racial harassment (McClelland & Hunter, 1992), and racial violence (Feagin, 1992). A synthesis of this work is necessary to provide innovation in how higher education researchers conceptualize practices and policies addressing racial conflict. For this presentation, the author intends to (1) describe a conceptual framework describing campus racial conflict; (2) provide a typology of racial incidents and their responses.

Author

• Blanca E. Elizabeth Vega, Teachers College, Columbia University