Three 1.5-generation immigrant, Nigerian American, women students attending a diverse urban university participated in face-to-face interviews and a focus group to share their experiences as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. Qualitative analysis revealed influences from their African heritage, identities as African…

Women of color often experience the pressures of navigating multiple intersecting roles and multiple intersecting identities within various contexts. Within the hegemonic environment of higher education, particularly at historically or predominantly white institutions (HWIs or PWIs), as prior research demonstrates, women of color frequently enact…

Background/Context: Although research on the experiences of multiply-marginalized Black and Brown students with dis/abilities in higher education is limited, this growing body of work indicates that these students navigate racialized perceptions of ability, which impact their experiences on college and university campuses. This research highlights…

The lack of diversity of institutional leaders and faculty in private biological science graduate schools has created barriers for Black, Brown, and Indigenous graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and women who pursue science careers in biomedical research. The disparity in the leadership of these populations has impacted the ability of…

Background: Students' recognition beliefs have emerged as one of the most important components of engineering role identity development for early-career undergraduate students. Recognition beliefs are students' perceptions of how meaningful others, such as peers, instructors, and family, see them as engineers. However, little work has investigated…

It can be tough to talk about disabilities. However, when we avoid talking about it, we ignore a huge piece of someone's personal identity. This identity is complex, multifaceted, and requires a unique set of needs. It is important that students with disabilities are heard. When living with a disability, society can often have lower expectations…

Black women have engaged through social media platforms, as a mechanism to uplift their embodiment, despite being relegated to the margins. The hashtag #BlackGirlMagic (BGM) is linked to narratives of Black women in higher education that are empowering and problematic. The development of the popular social media movement during a time when Black…

First-generation college students (FGCSs) are a growing population in undergraduate education. Research on FGCS primarily focuses on the challenges and barriers they encounter in college. While important, this literature offers a limited view of FGCS as learners. Moreover, minimal literature has examined these students' lived experiences within…

The COVID-19 global pandemic provided an opportunity to reassess pedagogies, practices, and policies in higher education. In this dissertation, I explored the experiences of undergraduate and graduate students with dis/abilities (SWDs) in higher education before and during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The first manuscript is a descriptive study…

The purpose of this qualitative meta-narrative was to explore the experiences of Black college women with natural hair on a predominantly white (PWI) college campus using intersectionality theory. Six self-identified Black college women with natural hair participated in this study. Three major findings emerged from this study: (a) interpersonal…

This study used an exploratory case study approach to explore the race-related experiences of a Black male specialist level school psychology graduate student. We used the CRT tenets of racism as normal and permanent and intersectionality and antiessentialism to help us make sense of the findings. Findings revealed that race and racism did not…

Black girls face the challenge of developing a healthy sense of self because of racism and sexism in school settings. Building on extant literature, this study examines a sample of socioeconomically diverse Black girls' in predominately White, Black, and racially and ethnically diverse school settings. Data collection included focus groups with…

This paper explores 'decolonial love' as a pedagogy of care among 16 first generation Black immigrants enrolled in predominantly White four- year colleges in the United States and Canada. The term 'decolonial love' and extensions of this original conceptualization focus on radical self-love and resistance to colonial oppression. Scholars have also…

Though school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic affected all students globally, the effect was significantly more for students from marginalized and vulnerable communities. In Nova Scotia, Canada, the concern was the racial achievement gap that the education system is addressing through an inclusive education policy. The worry, especially for…

The purpose of this convergent parallel mixed methods study was to understand how being both Black and a girl impacted the mathematical and STEM experiences of Black adolescent girls enrolled in informal STEM learning programs and Black adolescent girls who are not enrolled in informal STEM learning programs. Using Critical Race Theory, this study…