Date of Award

2025-08-31

Degree Name

PhD Education for Social Justice

Dissertation Committee

Maya Kalyanpur, PhD, Chair; James O. Fabionar, PhD, Member

Keywords

Asian American, Higher Education, College, Belonging, Racial Identity, Midwest

Abstract

Asian American students are often deemed overrepresented in higher education, leading to inequities in admissions, scholarships, and student support. This perception feeds and is fed by the model minority stereotype, which characterizes Asian Americans as hard-working and high-achieving and creates intense pressure to succeed academically (Poon et al., 2016). In addition, Asian American college students often experience racism and xenophobia, which can undermine their sense of belonging on campus. However, in the Midwest, where their immigration is more recent and conversations about race are often framed in terms of Black and white, Asian Americans often feel invisible and othered (Lee, 2009; Trieu, 2018).

Framed with Asian Critical Theory, this critical ethnography explored how 16 Asian American undergraduate students at a private Midwestern university view the construction of their ethnic identity, how stereotypes shape this process, and how experiences of belonging or exclusion influence the way these students see themselves and others. The study’s participants saw “Asian American” as a shared identity that brings together different national origin ethnic groups, but complicated by intersectional aspects of their identities, including socioeconomic background, ethnicity, political beliefs, religion, queerness, or rural upbringing. The study documents the complexity of this identity formation and how hierarchical and competitive social, academic, and institutional factors created barriers to belonging in this research setting. Its findings point to the importance of considering geographical and institutional influences on Asian American identity formation and emphasize the necessity for higher education professionals to understand the complexities of these students’ experiences and needs.

Document Type

Dissertation: Open Access

Department

Learning and Teaching

Download

Share

COinS