Historically marginalized youth shape public life through civic literacies that are rooted in their identities and experiences with systemic injustices. Literacy scholarship has accordingly traced how practitioner inquiry, a participatory approach to knowledge production, can educationally support the flourishing of these literacies. But while…

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…

Latina high school students aspiring to careers in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) participated in the year-long Latina STEM Fellowship (LSF) program. A team of education professionals interviewed the students to better understand how these Latina students visualize a future STEM career, their perceived…

In this study, we bring the concepts of sociopolitical development and intersectionality into conversation to examine how girls of color can develop a sense of agency that is grounded in an understanding of how race and gender impact their desired personal and STEM academic trajectories. Using a three-stage intersectional sociopolitical…

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 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…