Poster #15 - Examining the Racial-Colonial Underside of U.S. Higher Education Foundations

• In Event: 61.072 - MTCC Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: 61.072-2 - Politics of Student Choice, Pedagogies, and Organizational Development in Higher Education

Abstract

In this paper I examine the racial-colonial underside of US higher education foundations, so as to ultimately reframe common responses to contemporary challenges. To do so, I reread three celebrated moments of higher education history to examine how they were entangled with violence: the colonial era; land grant legislation; and the post-War “golden age.” I suggest that confronting these foundational violences is a necessary part of any effort to unravel harmful inherited patterns of representation, relationship, and resource distribution. Rather than prescribe a single path forward, I emphasize the need for scholars and practitioners to develop the stamina to have difficult conversations about the implications of these racial-colonial foundations.

Author

• Sharon Stein, The University of British Columbia