A Phenomenological Inquiry into the Racialized Experiences of Southeast Asian American Community College Students

Southeast Asian American (SEAA) (e.g., Cambodian, Hmong, Lao, and Vietnamese) students\u27 educational realities are often masked by assumptions that all Asian Americans are model minorities. However, SEAA students have also been racialized as deviant minorities to explain disparities faced by the community. Relatively minimal scholarship has explored how race and racism shape their experiences. In this study, AsianCrit provides a framework for exploring the racial realities of SEAA students in community college. Qualitative research methods were employed to explore in-depth the ways they experience race and racialization. Specifically, this study is a phenomenological exploration of their lived racialized experiences and its impact on their educational experiences. Ten SEAA community college students participated in the study, providing detailed accounts of the challenges they faced as racialized beings. Findings indicate that participants experienced significant difficulties related to experiences of racial and ethnic isolation, which are exacerbated by Asianization, racially-ascribed deviance, institutional invisibility, and community college stigma. These experiences have significant psychological impacts for students. Despite these challenges, SEAA students showcased strength, resilience, and agency, and benefitted from critical sources of support that enable them to enact resistance to deficit ideologies. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also discussed

The SEAAster Scholars Collective: A Story of Homemaking in Academia

How do we make a home in spaces not built for us? What does an academic home for Southeast Asian American (SEAA) women look and feel like? This is the story of how a collective of SEAA women came together to create an alternative space in higher education. Continuing the radical act of resistance modeled by other Black, Indigenous, and women of color scholars, the SEAAster Scholars Collective uses a feminist epistemological approach to further their mission—to advance knowledge and understanding of the postsecondary educational experiences of SEAA students, staff, and faculty

Reclaiming the mission of academic medicine: An examination of institutional responses to (anti)racism

Purpose: The utility of institutional statements is said to provide clarity and reinforcement of an institution's goal. Unfortunately, it can also be argued that these statements are in clear misalignment between the words described and the environments that faculty, students, trainees, and staff of color face. The purpose of this study was to analyze academic medicine institutional statements that responded to 2020 racial tensions following the murders of George Floyd, among others, and the subsequent nationwide protests against police brutality. Methods: We conducted a manifest content analysis of institutional statements generated by academic medical centers after George Floyd's murder. We used manifest content analysis to gain insights into how institutional statements connect structural racism to the mission of academic medicine. We collected and examined institutional statements from 26 academic medicine centers. Selection parameters included statements that were publicly available and published by the institutions during a 2‐week period. We conducted a four‐stage analysis: decontextualization, recontextualization, categorization, and compilation. To better understand the collection of statements, we plotted these institutional statements according to the most salient discussed themes. Results: Overall, institutional statements discussed racism through three subthemes: identifying the racial implications of health disparities, issuing a call to action to address racism, and decentering race. Absent language is also noted. Second, institutional statements evoked institutional values by expressing an explicit connection with the academic medicine mission, naming the value of social justice, and emphasizing the concept of community. Finally, institutional statements largely discussed public health in connection with racism or with institutional values. Conclusion: Our study determines a much‐needed reconnection to the mission of academic medicine. Reclaiming the social mission will be a major step toward recentering the foundation of institutional actions. This call is what ultimately will improve the health and well‐being of marginalized populations