Diversity Work and Higher Education: Interrogating the Logics of Bio-Meritocracy

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Access for All: Troubling Dis/Ability Barriers in Higher Education

Abstract

The most common argument against movements for equity and justice in higher education is the belief that academic excellence is opposed to equality. This position supports an elitist view that favors reputation over redistributive justice. Disability scholars have revealed that mechanisms of standardization maintain hierarchies in higher education based on the pervasive construct of normalcy. Normalcy can masquerade as rigor just as easily as whiteness hides within the cloaks of “highly selective.” Therefore, in this project, we call identify these practices as the function of "bio-meritocracy" and argue that it operates pervasively within systems of higher education, tying meritocracy to pure biology.

Authors

• Lauren Shallish, The College of New Jersey

• Ashley Taylor, Colgate University