EDITOR'S NOTES

New Directions for Student Services, 2017

The author draws upon over four decades of experience in student affairs administration to investigate how senior student affairs officers can incorporate intersectionality into comprehensive and targeted decision-making processes, strategic planning, and organizational considerations.

Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis, 2015

Introduction "There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, because we do not live single-issue lives."-Audre Lorde Have single-issue, identity-based student centers, such as LGBTQ Resource Centers and Black Cultural Centers, outlived their usefulness? Practitioners often contend with the critique that these centers serve as mechanisms to promote self-segregation; yet, these centers are a vital source of student voice and provide opportunities for support and celebration of college students' identities, especially for students from minoritized groups (Patton, 2010; Renn, 2011). Identity-based centers play important roles on U.S. college campuses. While it is certainly correct to argue that identity-based centers serve critically important functions, the single-issue approach has unintended consequences for students with multiple, intersecting identities (Renn, 2011). Moreover, identity-based student centers exist within institutions that operate in a larger context that Shahjahan (2012) called neoliberal higher education or "the theoretical and practical restructuring of HE [higher education] according to neoliberal logics" (p. 3). These logics include marketization (e.g., brand and marketing strategies in admissions), privatization (e.g., reduction of state support), and human capital development (e.g., developing culturally competent workers). Developing strategies to resist neoliberalism is a central concern within identitybased centers because, as Darder (2012) stated about neoliberal multiculturalism, "questions of [individual] difference have been neatly conflated and diffused by a hypocrisy fueled by racism, elitism, and a tenacious disbelief in the equality of those who exist outside the narrow rationality of its [neoliberalism's] profit logic" (p. 413). More simply, neoliberal logics ignore and erase the social contract of upward mobility and social advancement for marginalized individuals through education. Further, identity-based centers attempts to mediate the adverse effects of oppression (e.g., genderism), but may inadvertently do so under neoliberal logics (e.g., adding gender identity/expression to non-discrimination statements). Because of the neoliberal higher education context, in this article, I posit that a framework that resists neoliberalism through intersectional social justice student affairs praxis is necessary. While this paper specifically develops a case for this framework based upon the experiences of transgender or trans* 1 students, the negative effects of neoliberalism influences all marginalized students' experiences. While other scholars developed strategies for students or faculty to resist neoliberalism (Darder, 2012; Levidow, 2002; Shahjahan, 2012), I develop a framework for student affairs administrators (SAAs) to resist neoliberalism's negative effects through intersectional social justice praxis. In order to advance this framework, I further describe neoliberalism, and then define social justice and intersectionality as informed by Critical Trans Politics. Next, I describe a base of evidence from a small-scale qualitative study that supports the claim that continuing to conduct student affairs in a single-issue manner is problematic if we seek to adequately serve increasingly diverse student populations. Then, I address key issues related to the question of whether there is utility in the continued existence of single-issue identity centers. Finally, I develop some intellectual strategies and concrete steps for developing intersectional social justice student affairs praxis. Describing Neoliberal Logics and Processes Practitioners are already aware of the effects of neoliberalism in higher education, but may call these effects by different names, including the rise of corporate culture, noting the increased numbers of contingent faculty and administrators, and the emphasis on individual rights and responsibilities (Darder, 2012; Giroux, 2002; Spade, 2011). Students, who itemize their tuition into percentages of each class period, viewing education as nothing 1 Trans* is used broadly and inclusively throughout this paper to refer to a group of gender diverse individuals including genderqueer, transsexual, transgender, and gender non-conforming individuals. (Tompkins, 2014) more than a fee for service, exemplify neoliberalism. In addition, increased accountability and reductions in state support are other features of neoliberalism (Darder, 2012). Under neoliberalism, "politics are market-driven and the claims of democratic citizenship are subordinated to market values" (Giroux, 2002, p. 428). Neoliberalism views education as a private good, erasing the idea that public education is a human right (Darder, 2012). The hallmarks of neoliberalism in higher education are the treatment of all relationships as business relationships; increased focus on efficiency, accountability, and quality as defined by the bottom line; commodification of educational products (e.g., classes); and relationships between administrators, faculty, and students as mediated by consumption (Levidow, 2002). Neoliberalism operates within an individual rights framework that draws attention to the "incidents of intentional, individualized negative action, discrimination, exclusion, and violence" (Spade, 2011, p. 102). By directing attention towards individual acts of discrimination, the larger structure that supports oppressive ideologies remains intact. Further, within neoliberalism, the individual is the only acceptable unit of analysis for social and educational problems. Neoliberal higher education, with its accompanying logics of multiculturalism and colorblindness, provides a context where an emphasis is made on creating bias-incident reporting mechanisms, adding new categories of protection to nondiscrimination statements, and efforts to reduce individual bias within identity based student services rather than addressing the larger social structures which produce the conditions of oppression (Cabrera, 2014). These moves, while worthwhile, are insufficient given the advancement of neoliberal logics and processes. I contend that neoliberalism has profound effects on the ways that SAAs engage in their work. SAAs are not intentionally following neoliberal logics; rather these logics are unduly influencing the lenses through which practitioners engage in their work. Often, identity centers exist within relatively conservative campus environments, which may capitalize on neoliberal logics as ways to find niche markets and respond to the current demands for producing diverse human capital. The demands of neoliberalism challenge the student affairs profession's values of advancing democratic citizenship and social justice (Saltmarsh & Hartley, 2011), thus understanding the effects of neoliberalism, and developing ways to resist it, are critically important in continuing to advance the profession's values. I propose that one strategy to resist neoliberalism is to develop an intersectional social justice framework rooted in Critical Trans Politics. Developing an Intersectional Social Justice Framework To underscore the significance of an intersectional social justice framework, I define these terms and the importance of this framework for my research. First coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality addresses the overlapping, mutually reinforcing, and intersecting matrix of subordination that impacts the lived experiences of Black women which, at the time, could not be easily understood within existing feminist frameworks or anti-racist frameworks. Rather than viewing the experiences of Black women as racism plus sexism, intersectionality aims to understand how a combination of social forces (e.g., racism, sexism) uniquely shapes the experiences of Black women. Emanating from legal studies and Black feminist thought, intersectional frameworks seek to understand oppression beyond unitary political identities. More specifically, "intersectionality refers to the interaction between gender, race, and other categories of difference in individual lives, social practices, institutional arrangements, and cultural ideologies and the outcomes of these interactions in terms of power" (Davis, 2008, p. 68). I would like to make a distinction here between intersectionality and holding multiple identities. Intersectionality is a construct specifically created with the experiences of multiple forms of subordination in mind (Black women), while multiple dimensions of identity might include multiple forms of subordination (queer, woman) and forms of dominance (whiteness) (Crenshaw, 1989; Abes, Jones, & McEwen, 2007). In considering the population discussed in this article, namely trans* college students, societal level forces (e.g., heterosexism, racism, genderism 2) shape the experiences of these students. The concept of intersectionality is important to student affairs practice because this framework better equips practitioners to conceptualize the ways in which larger social structures affect college students' experiences. Adding an intersectional analysis to a social justice framework moves away from singular understandings of identity and towards a model where the multiple, intersecting identities of students are addressed. In this paper, I use intersectionality in two ways: first, to refer to the social structures that privilege groups (e.g., white 3 , cisgender) and disadvantage groups (e.g., Black, queer); and second, to refer to the ways that identities come together within one's lived experiences with privilege and oppression (e.g., white, pansexual). Having described intersectionality, I now define social justice. While social justice seems to be an increasingly popular buzzword throughout U.S. education systems, there appears to be little consensus about what social justice actually means (Furman, 2012; Strayhorn & Hirt, 2008). Drawing on the work of Adams, Bell and Griffin (2007) and Young...

Developing an intersectional social justice praxis in student affairs is important given the wide sweeping economic and political shifts occurring in society and are creating shifts within higher education environments. These shifts, referred to here as neoliberalism, adversely affect already minoritized populations (e.g., trans* students). Simultaneously, higher education professionals, particularly those in identity-based centers, seek solutions to common student problems (e.g., campus climate) through policies and practices, which may inadvertently advance a neo-liberal agenda. I propose a framework that seeks to develop policies, programs, and practices that work to subvert neoliberalism, or at the very least stop the advancement of neoliberal ideology within student affairs. In this article, I argue adoption of this framework in student affairs using findings from an exploratory study about the experiences of transgender college students. The framework calls for social justice approach grounded in Critical Trans Politics and draws on notions of intersectionality to understand the effects of larger social forces on individual students’ experiences.

Journal of College Student Development, 2009

Rethinkign College Student Development Theory Using Critical Frameworks , 2019

This chapter draws on historical and emerging literature to highlight how core tenets and assumptions of intersectionality enhance, complicate, and challenge concepts within student development theory.

College Student Affairs Journal, 2007

New Directions for Student Services, 2017

In this chapter, the authors share insights from a dialogue project focused on intersectionality within a residential life setting and discuss additional strategies for helping students understand intersectionality. We believe that understanding intersectionality is essential for anyone who wants to live in a socially just world, whether a person has dominant social identities, marginalized identities, or like most people, a combination of both. Stemming from the foundational work of Crenshaw (1989), intersectionality has been used as an analytical tool to deconstruct interlocking systems of oppression and as a scholarly framework to highlight the lived experiences of historically marginalized populations . As Dill and Zambrana (2009) posited, intersectionality "provides a critical analytic lens to interrogate racial, ethnic, class, ability, age, sexuality, and gender disparities and to contest existing ways of looking at these structures of inequality" (p. 1). Intersectionality helps us consider the structures and systems that intersect, highlighting differences in lived experiences based on the multiple identities of individuals and how those differences manifest in group disparities. We became interested in applying intersectionality in residential life settings given our social identities (as cisgender, queer, and allied people of color) and our understanding of the potential for residential life to influence positive student learning and development . Based on our background experiences working in residential life (as resident assistants, resident directors, and administrators), we saw that the existing approaches to understanding inequality tended to focus solely on singular systems of oppression. For instance, identity-based housing can create a safe and inclusive environment for marginalized student groups, yet often only highlights a single marginalized identity/group, such as Black students, Latinx students, or LGBTQ students. A queer, Black, and Muslim student who chooses to live in the LGBTQ-affirming community may find that no one understands how racism and Islamophobia converge and complicate her lived experiences as a queer woman. Such an example illustrates that the analytical power of intersectionality is needed as residential life staff seek to understand students' experiences within increasingly complex contexts and campus environments. We are also aware that complications can arise when attempting to apply intersectionality to practice, especially given its complexities and its evolution (see Wijeyesinghe, this volume). As with any university context, residential life is a microcosm of larger oppressive institutional environments-institutions with long histories of exclusionary and negative climates for diversity . However, through our own experiences, we believe there are opportunities in residential life to affect positive social change by disrupting the systems of oppression that have historically excluded people with various marginalized social identities. A tenet of intersectionality is centering the voices of people NEW DIRECTIONS FOR STUDENT SERVICES •

This article is written by two student affairs administrators and a senior at an elite, small private colleges in southern California. Their perspectives are shaped by their multiple and intersecting identities, which include trans, queer, African descent and social justice educators.

New Directions for Institutional Research, 2011

Both qualitative and quantitative research that categorizes students along singular dimensions of identity provide limited information, which can restrict the ability of higher education scholars and institutional researchers to fully-and sometimes accurately-understand and respond to problems that exist in postsecondary education. Consider these two scenarios:

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2022

This qualitative study investigates how first-generation undergraduate students of Color at a historically white institution in the U.S. make sense and process the university's mission, especially in relation to the theoretical frameworks of intersectionality and post-subjectivity. U.S. universities are often structured on market-driven ideologies. They do not necessarily deeply take into account the experiences of their first-generation students of Color to the extent that could be observed in the institution's mission and goals. In this paper, we interacted with data while thinking with theory, philosophy, and concept as a method. Through these interactions, we gained insights about the lived experiences of first-generation undergraduate students of Color and how they perceive themselves to either be represented or not, within their institution's mission. Studies like this are needed because an institution's mission communicates central philosophies to stakeholders, and a clear mission statement is warranted to ensure that first-generation students of Color feel a sense of belongingness and affinity to their campuses. We also offer implications for future research and practice.