Narrative Bridges: Muslim Students, Reflexivity, and the Transition to an Elite University

• In Event: 65.072 - Higher Education: Who Gets In, and What Do They Get Out?

Abstract

The importance of higher education to upward mobility continues to generate concern for how racial, religious, and socioeconomic minorities fare in colleges and universities. Recently, scholars have made significant contributions to our understanding of the challenges that working-class students face and the strategies they develop to succeed. Nevertheless, far less is known about non-class based identities or how students develop strategies for change. Drawing on a one-year ethnographic study of Muslim students, I explore how those students adjust to the experience of an elite university. I find that through encounters with challenging academic knowledge and diverse lifestyles, these students build new reflexive understandings of their religion that facilitate adaptation to the university.

Author

• Jordan Brensinger, Teachers College, Columbia University