Not Just for me: Diasporic duty, Black spatiality, and STEM as collective aspiration for international Black students

• In Event: Placing Blackness: An exploration of Black STEM students’ connections to place identity

Abstract

Purpose
This paper explores the racialized and place-based experiences of Black STEM students from the African diaspora, including those who immigrated to the U.S. specifically for higher education and first- and second-generation students raised within the American education system. As part of the [BLINDED] research project, this study highlights how race, geography, and diasporic identity shape academic journeys, belonging, and aspirations. It particularly examines how STEM becomes not only a personal pursuit but also a collective and transnational responsibility rooted in diasporic duty. By centering diverse diasporic experiences, this paper aims to broaden understandings of what it means to be Black in STEM within U.S. institutions.
Theoretical Framework
This paper is grounded in Black Liberatory Education (Love, 2019; Martin et al., 2019), African-centered theory (Asante, 2007; Ani, 1994; Mazama, 2003), Black spatiality (McKittrick, 2006; Gilmore, 2007), and research on institutional belonging (Gray et al., 2022). These frameworks interrogate how international Black students experience institutional space, citizenship, and Blackness at the intersection of race, geography, and identity, while also illuminating how they navigate spaces that are often not designed to recognize or support their complex, layered identities.
Methods and Data Sources
This analysis draws from a broader qualitative study with 85 Black undergraduate STEM majors across multiple universities in North Carolina, including both HBCUs and PWIs. The data subset for this paper includes focus groups with international Black students. Data was coded thematically using a grounded theory approach, centering participant narratives to illuminate shared patterns and divergences.
Results
Three key findings emerged:
1. Black Spatiality & Displacement: Students described feeling both hypervisible (as Black) and invisible (as international), facing conditional belonging policed by performance, immigration status, and misrecognition. Even within Black-centered spaces like HBCUs, cultural disconnection and mutual misunderstanding between international and African American students created social fragmentation.
2. Diasporic Duty & Communal Accountability: Students carried a strong sense of responsibility to family, home nations, and communities. Their academic success was interpreted as a form of communal uplift rather than individual achievement.
3. Pride, Pressure, and the “Gift” of Opportunity: Students expressed deep pride in studying abroad, but also a lack of institutional awareness and mental health support. Their inclusion often felt transactional—contingent on gratitude, silence, and academic performance.
Scholarly Significance
This paper pushes the field to consider diasporic complexity within Black student populations, especially in STEM. It challenges institutions to move beyond U.S.-centric models of equity and belonging to include transnational, culturally rooted perspectives. Findings have implications for student support, faculty development, and institutional policy. Ultimately, this work advocates for a reimagining of Blackness in higher education—one that embraces diasporic identities and builds bridges across Afro-Caribbean, African, Afro-Latino, and African American student communities. By naming diasporic duty and displacement, this research offers new entry points for solidarity, cultural affirmation, and liberatory praxis in STEM education.

Authors

• Joanna N. Ali, North Carolina State University

• Paula Groves Price, North Carolina A&T State University