Remaking Selves, Repositioning Selves: An Examination of Asian American College Students’ Efforts to “Belong”

• In Event: Race/Ethnicity and the College Student Experience

Abstract

This paper explores what happens when college students interact with campus space. I examine what happens when aspects of campus space interact with particular aspects of Asian American students’ racial identities and racialized expectations. Drawing on findings from a larger mixed methods study that examines contradictory experiences of Asian American college students, this paper examines what “belonging” looks like and means for these students. Informed by their understandings of what it means to be Asian American in college, students renegotiate expectations and remake or reposition themselves. Students’ efforts to achieve a greater sense of belonging indicate that there are still tensions and dilemmas with which Asian American students continue to wrestle even after they have gained access to higher education.

Author

• Michelle Samura, Chapman University