This hermeneutic and post-intentional phenomenological study explored how trauma experiences affected sense of belonging for undergraduate students. Results suggest five salient textures of belonging after trauma, including silence, validation, isolation, compassion, and betrayal. Implications for student affairs practice are presented to frame…

College is associated with positive outcomes in adulthood. However, many students with foster care backgrounds face challenges transitioning into college settings. Young adults with foster care backgrounds also experience mental health conditions and suicidal ideation at a higher rate than their same aged peers. This study examined the…

The empathic demands facing student affairs practitioners can cause significant emotional distress that some may experience as trauma. Supervision may mitigate this distress, but student affairs supervisors are often ineffective. This pilot study was conducted by scholar-practitioners who explored the connections between feminist praxis in…

"Plantation politics" refers to the lingering impact of slavery's afterlife or how vestiges of enslavement permeate contemporary culture, including institutions of higher education (IHEs; Hartman, 2008; Squire et al., 2018; Williams et al., 2021). For Black women administrators (admins), the enduring legacy of caretaking, bodily control,…

In this duoethnography, the co-authors share their experiences and reactions to trauma as student affairs practitioners in the wake of a car and knife attack at Ohio State University. Our goal in sharing these stories is for readers to join us as collegiate educators in this journey of exploring trauma and the healing process. We want to continue…

In the wake of highly visible institutionalized anti-Black violence, this study examined how sense of belonging manifests among Black students at historically white colleges. The findings speak to the need to expand upon the conceptualization of sense of belonging for Black students, particularly considering the history of racial trauma in the…

Recent critiques have noted the lack of critical attention to theorizing the body in much of the college student identity development literature. In the case of survivors of college student trauma, the body can be a rich site of meaning making. The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory study was to explore embodied dimensions of traumatic…

The authors sought to develop a multidimensional scale that could be used in academic assistance settings to assess barriers to academic success among college students. Relative to the number of studies in the literature focused on the relationship between behavioral health and study behaviors as they relate to academic success (American College…

This constructivist grounded theory study reveals nine interrelated components that describe white undergraduates' processes for making meaning of issues of race and racism in their environments. Findings also reveal how these processes perpetuate whiteness and anti-blackness. I present the theory as a composite counternarrative that draws upon…

The discourse about men of color in higher education centers on their lower enrollment, persistence, and graduation rates. This paper drew on validation theory to understand how two men of color programs helped 41 Black, Latino, Asian American, and Pacific Islander college students develop healthy gender expression and emotional vulnerability.…

Scholars identify interpersonal interactions as playing significant roles in many developmental processes that occur during the college years (e.g., Baxter Magolda, 2004, 2009a; E. H. Erikson, 1997; Torres, Jones, & Renn, 2009); however, the intersection of interpersonal dimensions of college student development and trauma is scantly discussed…

Research on American universities' involvement in slavery has primarily been historical. We drew upon Critical Race Quantitative Inquiry, or QuantCrit, to devise a methodology to measure various ways Black college students respond to their institution's history of slavery, and to explore factors that may relate to these responses. Data were…

Baby Suggs's sermon in the clearing to formerly enslaved Black folx offers readers an important anecdote about living in the afterlife of white supremacy (Hartman, 2007; Sharpe, 2016). Baby Suggs seemed to understand that the priority for survival and emancipation was loving one's flesh in a world where "yonder they do not love your…

We assessed the moderating role of posttraumatic growth on the relationship between traumatic life events and suicidal ideation and behavior, suicide risk, and college adjustment. The sample of 557 college students completed questionnaires measuring their severity and number of traumatic life events, posttraumatic growth, suicidal thoughts,…

Scholars and practitioners alike often assume that discomfort is a necessary and productive aspect of the college experience. We used a range of theories grounded in the concept of dissonance to question these assumptions and critically analyze the role of discomfort in collegiate learning and development for today's diverse college student…