Rightful Presence on Twitter: Perspectives and Practices of Black Female Graduate Students

• In Event: Social Media, Identity, and Student Voice

Abstract

Social media platforms are becoming important spaces for early career scholars. Higher education is developing ways to support graduate students in fostering online scholarly identities, but we know little about the perceptions of and challenges faced by students from groups underrepresented in academia. We used the construct of rightful presence to understand the perceptions of two Black female graduate students as they used Twitter for a course assignment. Our analysis suggests these students felt a diminished sense of rightful presence in academic spaces on Twitter, but were developing practices to bridge their identities as scholars and as Black women.

Authors

• Kathryn Rich, Michigan State University

• Sarah Galvin, Michigan State University

• William Bork, Michigan State University