Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Global Studies Program
Advisor(s)
Maple Razsa
Second Advisor
Nadia El-Shaarawi
Abstract
This thesis explores how Asian American students navigate their belonging at Predominantly White Institutions (PWI), specifically a case study at the higher educational institution Colby College. In understanding how Asian American students navigate the spaces around them, this thesis dives into the history of Asian immigration to the U.S., the Asian American politicized label, and the different diasporas and cultural nuances Asian Americans experience that make up the complicated, diverse, and misunderstood label. Through exploring global racializations of Asian bodies and legacies of Western imperialism and colonialism, this gives a basis of how Asian Americans understand themselves as persons living in the U.S. After establishing who Asian Americans are, there is a large focus on the concept of belonging and how Asian American students reposition themselves in different communities (academic, social) to find belonging within the larger institutional community. In this thesis, I argue it is not necessarily being a minoritized identity that influences whether one feels belonging or not in a PWI, but more so if one feels they are a marginalized identity that has greater influence on how they find belonging within the greater community. While this thesis focuses on exploring the nuances and diversities within the Asian American identity and how that fits into belonging at an institution, it is not about defining or encouraging belonging. Rather, this thesis is attempting to further understand the global processes and multiple intersectional identities individuals have that inform how we navigate our positions in historically white higher educational institutions not made for minoritized identities.
Keywords
Asian American, Belonging, Predominantly White Higher Education Institutions, Global Racializations, Minoritized, Identity
Recommended Citation
Alpert, Amanda Rose, "Asian American Navigation in Higher Education: Do We Belong at Colby College?" (2025). Honors Theses. Paper 1503.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/1503
Included in
Asian American Studies Commons, Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, Cultural History Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Global Studies Commons, Higher Education Commons, Political History Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, United States History Commons