This phenomenological dissertation study aimed to explore how agency is exerted beyond hegemonic masculinities in engineering and illuminated the influences of a discipline's culture on masculine thinking and being. Moreover, this study, guided by Black feminism, epistemologically and theoretically, moves Black masculinities scholarship and…

From their documented arrival in the colonial United States, Black women have been systemically forced to exist as mules for a society dependent on their labor and human capital for a developing nation funded by a plantation-centered economy. Likewise, the nation's earliest higher education institutions were founded within the confines of the U.S.…

Throughout my life, grief's torrents have run undercurrent to my personal and professional journey. It has taken my arrival to mid-life, decades of professional and life experiences as well as higher education for this awareness to flow. I have been grieving for my lost self as woman; my shattered voice as a teacher; and the freedom to choose as a…

This dissertation investigates the influence of racialization on the attrition rates of African American male students in predominantly white institutions (PWIs). The study examines whether these students experience cultural shock or face more profound systemic challenges. The research explores how African American men navigate and perceive their…

This study sought to document the lived experiences of women who teach in rural Iowa secondary schools. It aims to bring light to the ways in which rural women teachers experience power, marginalization, and oppression in their personal and professional lives. Additionally, this project hopes to provide insight for rural school leaders into how…

This dissertation builds on literature centering first-generation college students (FGCS) with immigrant parentage in order to develop an understanding of how many of their unique and intersectional experiences may function as assets that could promote retention and degree completion. The sample is comprised of 30 FGCS who are also first- or…

This dissertation explores the identity development of Muslim American women (N = 25) in higher education, utilizing intersectionality as both a methodological and theoretical framework. First and foremost, it centers the lived experiences, agency, and autonomy of Muslim women throughout the findings. Second, it takes into account the intersecting…