Queering Belonging: The Lived Experience of Sense of Belonging for LGBQ+ Resident Directors

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 3:35 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Phenomenology in Organizational Studies in Higher Education (Table 5)

Abstract

Residence life live-in professional staff, often referred to as Residence Directors or RDs, on college and university campuses are full-time professional staff who live and work with students in residence halls and apartment complexes. The inherent nature of the RD role is that of blurred boundaries between work and life outside of work, in addition to less autonomy as it relates to privacy. For lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or queer (LGBQ+) RDs this can prove to be a challenge to safety and authenticity, both of which are vitally connected to the experience of a sense of belonging for this community. This study uses a phenomenological approach to explore the essence of LGBQ+ RDs’ experience of belonging.

Author

• Pamela Scott, University of Maryland