In this comparative case study of 22 student-mothers in Georgia and New York during the COVID-19 pandemic, we explore the role social capital plays in mitigating participants' challenges. Using Adler and Kwon's (2002) bridging versus bonding forms of capital, we argue participants turned to their internal, primarily women-comprised networks…

Inequities in faculty representation and support have long been documented, though a potentially key contributor to these inequities--negotiation behavior--remains underexplored. We leverage descriptive analyses and hierarchical linear modeling with a sample of over 30,000 faculty to explore gender- and race-based differences across negotiating…

The spike of hate speech incidents on college campuses since the 2016 U.S. presidential election has compounded the racial hostility students of color face on historically White campuses. These ongoing incidents require institutions to respond purposively to address the harm students of color experience in their aftermath. Using an "inclusive…

The NCAA's 2015 Cost of Attendance (COA) policy allowed Division I schools to increase spending on student-athletes. Using data documenting COA implementation and a difference-in-differences design, we explore the relationships between COA and institutions' financial behaviors. Athletics expenditures grew substantially after COA adoption,…

This study examines the role of deans, department chairs, and diversity officers within the faculty diversity and hiring discourse. Using an embedded case study approach, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 administrative and academic leaders across four academic departments to understand their theories of change to advance faculty…

Though understudied, academic structure reflects and shapes the central work--education, research, service--of higher education organizations (HEOs). Academic structure also shapes and illuminates the external environments and internal dynamics of HEOs. Despite the centrality of academic structure to HEOs and their work, our knowledge of it is…

Reducing barriers to graduate and professional education may reduce racial inequities in high-status professions. In 2020, one-quarter of law schools accepted the GRE in place of the LSAT, reflecting an effort across educational domains to revisit standardized test requirements. We use a generalized difference-in-differences design to investigate…

This article combines theories of racialized organizations with insights on institutionalization to empirically analyze the role of grantmakers in unsettling postsecondary racial inequity. Using longitudinal data on federal grantmaking to institutions of higher education, we examine whether and how grantmaking policies (re)produce or diminish…

It has become increasingly difficult for the two major parties in Congress to reach agreement on major higher education legislation. As a result, the Higher Education Act is long overdue for reauthorization. Congressional stalemates on higher education legislation are not conducive to effective and productive governance in this important area of…

This qualitative case study was part of a larger, multi-year National Science Foundation funded project that centered upon a networked improvement community (NIC) of nine institutions seeking to improve racial climate in STEM graduate programs. We were particularly interested in the role of STEM graduate students at two NIC institutions in…

Although diverse patterns of college enrollment have gained attention in recent years, few studies have looked at students who take courses at four-year and two-year colleges simultaneously. Using a propensity score matching approach to compare outcomes of four-year college students who earned up to 10 credits at two-year colleges, termed…

Student networks play important roles in navigating vertical transfer. This article takes a qualitative approach to ego-network analysis to explore how transfer-intending community college students leverage networks during the transfer process. We use longitudinal data to analyze both the composition of student networks over time and the types of…

The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to understand how Black first-generation doctoral recipients used their cultural capital to navigate structural barriers and oppression enacted by stakeholders at non-Black serving institutions. Findings revealed that Black first-generation doctoral students used nine forms of cultural capital to…

In the 2021 Presidential Address, I argued that critical scholarship in higher education unsettled the demarcation between the street and the ivory tower and spans the gulf between theorizing and policy. I portrayed critical scholarship both as an insertion which disrupts bodies, stories, and refusals, as well as sitting uneasily on the fulcrum of…

Through a critical discourse analysis of online comments to a "New York Times" newspaper article about "Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College," this study explores how public comments about affirmative action offer insight into larger racial discourses about college admissions. Findings…