New Article on Multiracial Sudents at Minority Serving Institutions

In new study “Multiracial Belonging and Placemaking in Student Organizations at Minority Serving Institutions” published in the Journal of College Student Development with colleagues Brendon Soltis (University of Michigan) and Dr. Kim Bullington (Old Dominion University). In this article, we explore how Multiracial undergraduates at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) try to build belonging and placemaking through involvement in student organizations and how that process is shaped by monoracism, colorism, and shifting racialization. We argue there is a research gap because Multiracial student involvement has been studied far more often at PWIs than across distinct MSI contexts. We found that Multiracial students faced challenges similar to those at PWIs (monoracism, microaggressions), but at MSIs these dynamics often came through peer-driven cultural protection and racial authenticity rubrics rather than PWI-style tokenization. Students also tended to be less likely to mask or selectively disclose their multiraciality. This was possibly because MSIs’ “servingness” reputation created expectations of inclusion that did not always materialize in practice.

The article is available online (see link).