The Responsibility of Dismantling Whiteness in Higher Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Our symposium builds upon racism research in higher to explicitly place the responsibility of racism on the ‘whiteness-at-work’ (Yoon, 2012) in colleges and universities. While whiteness is an ideology and performance by mostly white people, it is experienced by Black, indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) as racism. This panel will explore how whiteness works in manifold ways through heteropatriarchal, classist, and ableist ideologies as well as white supremacy to maintain the dominance and hegemony that is commonplace in higher education. Drawing on the theme of the AERA 2021 annual meeting, this panel will offer research on whiteness in higher education to problematize it and take responsibility for dismantling it.

Sub Unit

• Division J - Postsecondary Education / Division J - Section 6: Society, Culture, and Change

Chair

• Nicole Michelle Joseph, Vanderbilt University

Papers

• Accepting Educational Responsibility for Whiteness in Academic Advising: Moving Toward Antiracist Advising Practices - Geneva L. Sarcedo, University of Colorado - Denver

• Queering Whiteness Studies: Exploring the (Im)Possibilities of Antiracist Teaching as Imagined by White Educators - finn j. schneider, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• "Fly on the Wall" Moments for Contested White Students Reveal the Hollowness of Race - Orkideh Mohajeri, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

• The Gatekeeper: Gendered, White Racial Bonding in College Algebra - Naomi Nishi, Colorado State University - Fort Collins

Discussant

• Tenisha Tevis, Oregon State University