Shifting Racial Models of Personhood in Late Adolescence: Heterogeneous Resources and the New Latino Diaspora

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Agency and Identification: Equitable Opportunities for Marginalized Students

Abstract

This paper explores the changing dynamics of race relations in Marshall, PA, a New Latino Diaspora town. We tell the stories of Valeria, Maria and Gabriela, as they move from 8th to 11th grade, and analyze the assemblages of heterogeneous resources that facilitate how these three Latina adolescents mobilize shifting racial models of personhood in their community (Agha 2007, Wortham et. al. 2009). Focusing on the individual ontogenetic development of the girls, we pay specific attention to race, gender, and sexuality as we explore how resources from family, peer group, school, community, and national scales converge to promote the girls’ shifting racialization of their peers.

Authors

• Katie Clonan-Roy, University of Pennsylvania

• Stanton Wortham, University of Pennsylvania

• Briana Nichols, University of Pennsylvania