Conceptualizing LGBTQIA+ Student Housing Precarity in College Through Student and Staff Experiences.

• In Event: Research In Progress Roundtables Session 4
  In Invited Roundtable: LGBTQ Studies in Education Research: Inclusion, Identity, Gender Normativity, and Housing Insecurity (Table 8)

Abstract

Though research on housing insecurity in higher education exists, scholarship needs to attend more closely to queer and transgender student contexts. This study explores the experiences of LGBTQIA+ undergraduate students who have encountered housing loss while living in university-controlled housing. The study also advances a new conceptual term for understanding housing issues in higher education: “housing precarity.” Through semi-structured interviews of LGBTQIA+ undergraduate students and university housing staff at a single institution, this study shows how LGBTQIA+ students face unique challenges when it comes to displacement in university housing systems beyond financial constraints. Implications address policy and practice for university housing to better attend to the contexts of queer and trans students.

Author

• Steven Drake, University of Texas at Austin