Supporting the Higher Education Access and Success of Rural Students With Additional Marginalized Identities

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Spatial inequity – unequal dispersion of resources across geographic spaces – impacts people with the identity of “rurality.” One such resource is postsecondary education; rural populations face structural barriers to accessing and succeeding in college. However, inequity may be heightened for rural individuals with additional identities that have been marginalized in society. This session offers insights about groups of rural students related to postsecondary education, who also possess other marginalized identities: rural, Black students; rural, Latinx students; rural, queer students; and rural, poor and working-class students. Through such discussions, the presenters hope that rural postsecondary stakeholders consider spatial inequity around rural college access and success but make space around how inequity operates in exacerbated ways for rural Americans with additional marginalized identities.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Rural Education

Chair

• Ty C. McNamee, University of Kentucky

Papers

• “Push Through”: Postsecondary Education Trajectories for Rural Black Students Using a Qualitative Longitudinal Approach - Darris Roshawn Means, Clemson University

• Spatial Experiences of Rural Latinos: Geography, Power, and College Choice in the Borderlands of Texas - Vanessa A. Sansone, University of Texas - San Antonio

• Navigating Queer and Rural Identities and the Insider/Outsider Paradox in Higher Education Settings - Ty C. McNamee, University of Kentucky; Brody C Tate, University of Chicago

• Considering Rurality and Social Class: Rural, Poor, and Working-Class Students’ Cultural Experiences in Higher Education - Ty C. McNamee, University of Kentucky