Mapping at the Margins: Environmental Justice and Racial Equity in Higher Education

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Making Sense of the Historical Present Through Critical and Justice-Centered Pedagogies (Table 9)

Abstract

Empirical evidence shows proximity to environmental toxins is likely to impair student overall wellbeing (Bullard, 1994 & U.S. EPA, 2021). This study focuses on the relationship of access to quality basic needs and proximity to racially marginalized college students from the five highest sending counties of Black students to one land grant institution in Illinois. Intersectional issues related to increasing climate, racial, and social injustices is explored within the context of businesses impact on environmental toxicities amid the increasing undergraduate graduation rates of racially minoritized collegians with business degrees who are most likely to work for business organizations who overtly or covertly pollute these same communities disproportionately impacting quality of local air, water, soil, and safety (Koshy et al., 2022).

Author

• Nicole Marie DelMastro-Jeffery, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign