MIXEDconceptions: A Narrative-Discourse Analysis of Mixed-Race College Students and Racialized Bullying

• In Event: Race, Punishment, and Student Outcomes and Experiences

Abstract

Since the 1970’s, bullying has been a popular phenomenon of study among various disciplines of academia, including criminology. However, even within the field of criminology, bullying has consistently been studied in two principal domains: among young children in a classroom/playground setting or among adults as a part of workplace harassment. This study discusses an entirely different approach to existing literature, which is both contemporary and intersectional, by examining bullying of college students who identify as mixed-race. College students are an underrepresented population of study within the bullying literature. Bullying against mixed-race individuals is a concern that has yet to be researched by academics as troubles affecting mixed-race identified individuals primarily focus on stresses of identity development. The proposed exploratory study looks at mixed-race college students at the University of Illinois at Chicago and considers the degree to which this phenomenon exists, the nature of such phenomenon, and how a social ecological framework may aid in explaining the nature, incidence, and potential intervention and prevention of such bullying incidents. The data presented discusses initial survey and interview data, stressing a narrative-discourse analysis of interviews with mixed-race students at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Author

• Joanna Thompson, University of Illinois at Chicago