Today, we are pleased to introduce you to another CASAA Scholar-Advocate, Dr. Graciela Slesaransky-Poe, who is working with student co-researchers Ilija Chacon-Flores, Zyah Fall, and Phoenix Vildor to study the experiences of queer and trans students of color at @arcadia1853.
Campus climate improvements for queer and trans students have been made over the past two decades; however, few directly recognize the #racialdiversity within the #LGBTQIA+ community or the particular needs of #queer and #trans students of color (#QTSOC).
The improvements that have been made were the result of the #agency and #selfadvocacy of #queer and #trans students of all races and their allies, coupled with knowledge generated from emerging scholarship on this topic.
These improvements certainly must be recognized and celebrated, but “they are only the beginning of the changes that are needed for higher education to be a truly trans-welcoming and trans-supportive environment” (Beemyn, 2019, p. xi).
After all, literature on the experiences of #queer and #trans students continues to indicate that they are still the targets of #harassment, #victimization, and #exclusion; they often feel silenced, invisible, and misunderstood (Wolf, Kay, Himes & Alquijay, 2017).
For this project, Slesaransky-Poe is working alongside Chacon-Flores, Fall, and Vildor—to co-investigate the experiences of #QTSOC via participatory action research to explore and propose ways of combating #racism and #whitesupremacy in #LGBTQIA+ student organizations at PWIs.
As this project reveals, research on BIPOC experiences must necessarily be intersectional in its framework to avoid casting a broad stroke for issues that demand a more complex and nuanced critical lens.
When I received applications for the CASAA Scholar-Advocates Program, I was truly excited about the intersectional approach Dr. Slesaransky-Poe’s work. That excitement only continued to grow as she expanded her research team with three stellar student scholars.
It was clear that she recognized a core aspect of antiracist research design: that the communities to be studied must be invited to help shape the research question/goals, to determine appropriate methodologies , and to serve as collaborators in the research.
At the same time, the project holds #advocacy and #action at its core, for the recommendations of the research team can make Arcadia a more welcoming space for QTSOC with an increased mindfulness about how #intersectionality of identity shapes student experience.
To learn more about the Center for Antiracist Scholarship, Advocacy, and Action (#globalCASAA) and its work, visit arcadia.edu/casaa and be on the lookout for future updates about the exciting projects of the CASAA Scholar-Advocates Program.