This critical case study explores creating and implementing an undocumented resource center (USRC) in Utah. Using a qualitative research approach, the study draws on interviews with key stakeholders involved in the development and operation of USRCs and an analysis of policy documents and other relevant materials. The study finds that creating…

In this dissertation, I explored students' expressed emotions as they worked on a problem-solving lab contextualizing the local lead poisoning issue in the city in which they attended college. I identified students' expressed emotions and their reasoning for expressing those emotions. I also looked at the change in students' emotions as they…

Multiple national calls centered on critical thinking and social justice have been made to improve and reform higher education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses to increase the representation of students from marginalized groups in the STEM workforce and equip all students for success. To help answer this call,…

Smart cities surveil through ubiquitous and intrusive data collection via networked sensors. Smart city efforts are also frequently imagined as primarily top-down and male visions of the future in service of economic benefit. The smart campus presents a new dimension of smart city urbanism as an identified gap in literature. In the following…

The research and discourse surrounding Black women in college has continued to expand in its scope in recent years. Scholars have written about Black college women in several ways describing the intersections of their multiple identities, racial battle fatigue, and the unique adversities they face (McKinzie & Richards, 2019, Shahid et al,…

Schools are recognized as sites where raciolinguistic ideologies operate, impacting Spanish- and African American Vernacular English-speaking students' education. However, it is often assumed that Indian American students are unaffected by these ideologies. This is fueled by headlines about Indian Americans excelling at spelling bee competitions,…

Loneliness was declared a national epidemic in May 2023 and an international global threat in November 2023. Sense of belonging, or lack thereof, can greatly contribute to loneliness. Students who feel a sense of belonging at their institution tend to be more engaged and experience higher success rates, which can lead to increased persistence and…

This study examined one instance of College Republicans sharing harmful rhetoric that aligns with the white power movement (WPM). Through a restorative justice (RJ) framework, the College Republican's rhetoric was found to be harmful to the University of Maine community. In this study, the University of Maine relied exclusively on legal approaches…

International service learning programs have continued to rise in popularity across U.S. institutions of higher education as a way of offering students comprehensive formats to engage with communities in other countries, learn how social issues of inequality impact people around the world, and strengthen student learning on global issues. However,…

This qualitative study explores the experiences and perspectives of disabled student activists involved in the creation of disability cultural centers (DCCs) on college and university campuses in the United States. The main purpose is to advance recognition of disability as a marginalized student identity on college campuses in need of safe spaces…

Whiteness fits the broad historical concept of property as it represents a social and material value as well as historical legal rights (Harris, 1993). Harris (1993) traced the history of racialization as justification for which people were legally citizens with the ability of self-possession and which people were relegated as the property of…

Muslim women are portrayed with a dichotomous image: on one side, as the victims of the patriarchal Muslim men and, on the other, as the violent associates of the Muslim terrorist (Maruoka, 2008). The act of head covering, the most visible Muslim-identified marker, has thus assumed an outsized space in research of Muslim women. However, while…

The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to explore how deaf college students tell stories reflecting on acculturation experiences at a four-year university in California. The problem addressed by this study was the lack of knowledge about the acculturation experiences of deaf college students on campuses. The target population was deaf…

I have developed a Feminist-Humanities model for social justice education that demonstrates pedagogical potency for building students' capacity for transformative social change. This dissertation presents the model, describes its theoretical framework, assesses its impact on student learning, and considers what the findings can offer to social…

Black men in America have a long-standing, strained relationship with authority in this country. History has shown time and again that racism has allowed authority figures to abuse their power and for some this subjugation causes Black men to be resistant to authority all together. In the field of higher education, limited research exists…