An Assemblage Theory Analysis of a Student Organization at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

• In Event: 31.048 - Critical Perspectives of Organizational Governance, Administration, and Leadership

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how a Latino student organization contributes to organizational change at an Hispanic-Serving Institution. Known as Teatro (pseudonym), the group was conceived and founded 26 years ago as a student-initiated retention effort targeting first-generation Latino students. Through their annual production, including its development process, Teatro expresses Latinidad – a space/time of Latino affirmation and struggle tied to the historic, material, embodied, and place-based establishments of Latino communities in the American West. Through the entanglement of Latinidad, the institution becomes more than buildings, students, staff, and faculty but rather an institution focused on change, or what the Authors (2016) have called, a becoming-organization.

Authors

• Ryan Evely Gildersleeve, University of Denver

• Brenda J Sifuentez, University of Denver