Racial Identity and Belonging Among Asian American Undergraduate Students in the Midwest

• In Event: Research in Progress Roundtable Session 3
  In Invited Roundtable: Student Experiences in Higher Education: Understanding the Implications of Race, Class, and National Identity (Table 2)

Abstract

This critical ethnographic study aims to better understand racial identity and sense of belonging among Asian American undergraduate students at a competitive, private, mid-sided Midwestern university. (1) How do Asian American undergraduate students define being Asian American, and how has that shifted or solidified over the course of their college experience? (2) What factors drew these Asian American undergraduate students to the Midwest (a region with fewer Asian Americans than many other parts of the United States) for college? (3) How do Asian American undergraduate students in a Midwestern university experience belonging, and how do they position themselves within this context?

Author

• Seema M. Dahlheimer, University of San Diego