Conceptualizing the Significance of Joy Among Latinx Scholars of Racialization in Higher Education

• In Event: 41061 - Section on Latina/o Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Latinx in Higher Education: Experiences, Barriers, and Strategies for Success

Abstract

The sociology of race and ethnicity has offered the world extensive scholarship on racialization (Bonilla Silva 2021; Feagin 2020; Omi and Winant 2014). Often, studies that examine racialization focus on the construction, experiences with and outcomes of racialization. And yet, one must not forget that an empowered racial identity, even a racialized one, together with an intentional resistance to existing hegemonic ideologies (i.e. Neoliberalism) may serve as a safeguard against the negative outcomes of being a racialized individual. Driven by our own positionality as first generation Latinas, interdisciplinary feminist scholars of race and ethnicity who are invested in ethics of care (Keeling 2014), and advocates for decolonizing higher education, that in this paper, we seek to conceptualize the significance of joy among Latinx scholars of racialization in higher education.

Authors

• Maria Isabel Ayala, Michigan State University

• Teresa Rivera, Michigan State University