Displaced or Erased? Media Representations of Puerto Rican College Students Post–Hurricane Maria in Higher Education

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Latinxs in Higher Education: A Contentious or Positive Climate

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine newspapers (local and national, Facebook, and Twitter as primary documents to understand how media outlets reported the effectiveness of institutions of higher education in supporting displaced Puerto Rican college students post-Hurricane Maria. Through a content analysis, which is the study of sign systems intersecting with power, I explore if and how students were able to enroll in stateside universities. This analysis is informed by a diaspora framework (Rolón-Dow & Irizarry, 2014) which captures the ways that diasporic communities make meaning of their experiences in relation to the sociopolitical and sociohistorical factors that shape them. Preliminary findings suggest that mainstream media (i.e. newspapers) have romanticized displaced Puerto Rican college student experience.

Author

• Nichole M. Garcia, Rutgers University