Diversity Rhetoric and Practice: A Critical Examination of “Diversity” in Graduate Education

Author

Tellisia M. Williams, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

6-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Psychology

Advisor

David Chapin

Advisor

Michelle Fine

Committee Members

Alia Tyner- Mullings

Martin Ruck

David Surrey

Subject Categories

Community-Based Research | Higher Education | Inequality and Stratification | Physical and Environmental Geography | Place and Environment | Race and Ethnicity | Social Psychology | Social Psychology and Interaction

Keywords

Diversity, Higher Education, Environmental Autobiography

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the built environment, educational policy, place making, and personalized lived experiences of doctoral students of color in “diverse” academic spaces. I critically examine the linkages and gaps in institutional policies of diversity and inclusion in relation to the narratives of doctoral students of color enrolled at the Urban Public University (pseudonym). I use qualitative methodology of Environmental Autobiography to capture the narratives. My dissertation demonstrates the importance of Critical Race Theory (CRT) by prioritizing the embodied knowledge making and experiences of people of color. This work challenges dominant ideologies of diversity and inclusion by centralizing race and racism in relation to other systems of oppression and animating the various forms of critical resistance and transformation engaged by doctoral students of color. This dissertation complicates the discourse on inter-group relations by investigating how students of color talk about diversity and places of inclusion and exclusion.

Recommended Citation

Williams, Tellisia M., "Diversity Rhetoric and Practice: A Critical Examination of “Diversity” in Graduate Education" (2020). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3706