White University Spaces and the Production of Racial Knowledge vs. Experiencing Race as Knowledge Itself

• In Event: 30420 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 11: Race and Higher Education

Abstract

This paper aims to challenge the assumption that racial knowledge must be produced within and by White institutional spaces, such as universities, rather than the result of one’s personal biography and racialized experiences. Drawing from the work of Black feminist thought, I explore the various epistemes of racial knowledge that university students use to justify or explain their understandings of race. To do this, I examine qualitative interview and survey data from university students enrolled at an elite, private-religious, and predominately White tri-campus community located in the Midwest. I highlight various (resistance) knowledge projects that university students engage with within White university spaces. Moreover, I demonstrate how students utilize multiple overlapping epistemes of racial knowledge, simultaneously; relying on both scientific discourse and situated and experientially-felt knowledge to construct and interpret their understandings of race and to navigate the institutionalized mechanisms of White university spaces.

Author

• Maura Rose Kraemer, University of Notre Dame