Racial Subjection Theory in Higher Education

Racial Subjection Theory in Higher Education contributes to the “third wave” of college student development theory by drawing upon cultural studies, critical and postmodern theory, and Critical Race Theory. The theory offers a new approach for analyzing racial identities, interests, and inequities in higher education contexts.

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Inspired by his own personal experiences in the borderlands of racial intelligibility, Jon Iftikar introduces racial subjection theory in this conceptual book. The theory contributes to the “third wave” of college student development theory by drawing upon insights from cultural studies, critical and postmodern theory, and Critical Race Theory. Through racial subjection theory, Iftikar demonstrates how racial identity is not a stage, status, nor an internal essence but instead, an on-going process that informs and is informed by experiences with White supremacy where college students are positioned as racial subjects through racial ideologies and within hegemonic Whiteness. Iftikar also utilizes the theory to analyze how students’ racial identifications and interests are formed, and how students embody and enact their racial identities. Re-envisioned as racial subjection, racial identity formation is thus a site of struggle, of both domination and empowerment, and a space for reproducing and/or challenging racial inequities in higher education contexts.

In addition to its theoretical contributions, the book aims to facilitate critical consciousness about race and racism in higher education among policymakers and practitioners that can reveal alternative sites for struggling against White supremacy and to provide conceptual tools for better understanding, supporting, and re-envisioning important racial identity-based forms of activism.