Critical Whiteness Praxis in Higher Education

"Critical Whiteness Praxis in Higher Education: Considerations for the Pursuit of Racial Justice on Campus presents data, analysis, examples, and counternarratives that illustrate how White supremacy is a normal and visible part of higher education. The chapters reflect voices that vary across race, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, other social locations, and campus positions that are underrepresented in critical Whiteness studies and address multiple arenas within higher education. As a Brown social justice educator who has worked with colleges and universities for almost four decades, I am inspired and hopeful that the critical truth-telling within these pages will shake us from safe, palatable approaches to systemic racism and White supremacy on campuses and inform new movements for revolutionary change.”

Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe - Foundational Multiracial Identity Theorist and editor of "The Complexities of Race: Identity, Power, and Justice in an Evolving America"

"Critical Whiteness Praxis in Higher Education: Considerations for the Pursuit of Racial Justice on Campus is timely, rich, and an important contribution to the scholarly literature. The editors should be commended for bringing together this cadre of scholars and leaders. Foste and Tevis brilliantly unearth the enormity of whiteness and its corresponding consequences on communities of color in higher education. This text is salient in challenging white supremacy and promoting racial equity in postsecondary educational contexts and beyond."

Brian L. McGowan - Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning, American University, USA

Foreword—Tracy Davis

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: On The Enormity of Whiteness in Higher Education —Zak Foste & Tenisha L. Tevis

Part One: Theoretical Foundations

Chapter 2: Toward Definitions of Whiteness and Critical Whiteness Studies: Disruption & Response-ability—Moria L. Ozias & Penny A. Pasque  

Chapter 3: White Normativity: Tracing Historical and Contemporary (Re)Productions of Whiteness in Higher Education—Lauren N. Irwin  

Chapter 4: White Racial Ignorance: White Lies and Inverted Epistemologies—Chris Corces-Zimmerman & Tonia Guida 

Chapter 5: Relinquishing White Innocence: Slaying a Defender of White Supremacy—Douglas H. Lee, Ellie Ash-Bala, Anton Ward-Zanotto, James Black, and OiYan A. Poon

Part Two: Practical Considerations

Chapter 6: Epistemic Asphyxiation: Whiteness, Academic Publishing, and the Suffocation of Black Knowledge Production—Wilson Kwamogi Okello 

Chapter 7: Dear White People: Black Women Students’ Perspective—Kenyona N. Walker & Lori D. Patton 

Chapter 8: How Whiteness Werqs in LGBTQ Centers—Alex C. Lange, Antonio Duran, & Romeo Jackson  

Chapter 9: Interrogating Whiteness in Sorority and Fraternity Life—Cameron C. Beatty & Crystal E. Garcia  

Chapter 10: The Permeation of Whiteness in Student Leadership Organizations—Brittany M. Williams, Bryan K. Hotchkins, & Meg E. Evans 

Chapter 11: Possibilities and Foreclosures: Exploring the Relationship Between Whiteness and Anti-Blackness in Higher Education—Tenisha L. Tevis & Natasha Croom 

Chapter 12: The White Racial Engagement Model: Unlearning the Oppressive Conditioning of Whiteness—Melvin A. Whitehead, Erin Weston, & Meg E. Evans 

Chapter 13: Whiteness and the Erasure of Indigenous Perspectives in Higher Education—Jameson D. Lopez & Felisia J. Tagaban 

Chapter 14: Starting from the Margins: Reflections on Challenging Whiteness in Higher Education—Zak Foste & Melvin A. Whitehead

Editors and Contributors

Index

Zak Foste

Zak Foste is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration at the University of Kansas. His research critically explores whiteness in American higher education. This work examines both how whiteness functions to underwrite racially hostile and unwelcoming campus climates for Students of Color and the ways in which white college students understand their relationship to race and whiteness. His most recent work has examined how whiteness structures students’ experiences in campus residence halls and community service-learning programs. Zak received his bachelors degree in sociology and political science from Western Illinois University, his masters degree in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Miami University, and his Ph.D. in Higher Education & Student Affairs from The Ohio State University.

Tenisha L. Tevis

Tenisha L. Tevis is an Assistant Professor of Adult and Higher Education at Oregon State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Theory and Policy Studies with a cognate in Higher Education from The Pennsylvania State University, and B.A. and M.A. degrees in Sociology from California State University Sacramento. As a praxis scholar, her research attempts to disrupt dominant ideologies and biased institutional practices, in two substantive and intersecting areas: students’ transition to college - exploring how marginalized students continue to be disenfranchised by inequitable practices, and the confluence of leadership and identity in higher education - understanding how leadership practices contribute to the patterns of inequality and exclusion. Her most recent work explores Black women’s and white women’s leadership, respectively, and includes a systematic review of the college access literature to better inform college advising of Black students.