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Ashlee_Aeriel_OhioLINK_4_29_19.pdf (1.05 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Neither, Nor, Both, Between: Understanding Transracial Asian American Adoptees' Racialized Experiences in College Using Border Theory

Ashlee, Aeriel A.
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3890-0250
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1556291981659086

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Educational Leadership.
Transracial Asian American adoptee collegians, who for the purposes of this study are Asian Americans raised in and by White adoptive families, are largely absent within college student development and higher education research. Much of the literature on Asian American racial identity referenced in higher education foregrounds familial, ethnic, and cultural factors in racial identity development, which may not resonate with or apply to transracial Asian American adoptees. The purpose of this study was to examine how transracial Asian American adoptees describe and make sense of their race in college and explore how power shapes participants’ constructions of race. To do this, I conducted a poststructural narrative study using Thinking with Theory as my data analysis strategy. I interviewed 12 transracial Asian American adoptee collegians, completing two interviews with each participant. By “plugging in” and iteratively moving between transcript data, Anzaldua’s (1987) Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Trenka’s (2003) memoir The Language of Blood, and my own researcher positionality as a transracial Asian American adoptee and adoption scholar, I explored the ways that Border Theory and Trenka’s articulation of “neither, nor, both, between,” opened new meanings and understandings for how transracial Asian American adoptees describe and make sense of their race in college. Participants’ narratives reveal the breadth and nuance of transracial Asian American adoptee collegians’ racialized experiences and perspectives. I also identified four emerging assemblages (collections of experiences) across and between participants’ narratives, which indicate that participants experienced feeling: (1) Neither Asian, (2) Nor White, (3) Both Model Minority and Perpetual Foreigner, and (4) Between Races. These assemblages demonstrate how transracial Asian American adoptees push the boundaries of who is and is not considered legitimately Asian; challenge the limits of who can and cannot access White privilege; trapeze the line between model minority and perpetual foreigner, simultaneously reifying and rejecting both stereotypes; and ultimately blur the confines between what it means to be Asian and White respectively. This study has important implications for student affairs theory and practice including the expansive and liberatory potential of poststructural perspectives, such as Border Theory, in student affairs research. This study also serves as an invitation to student affairs scholars and practitioners to (re)consider hegemonic notions of racial identity as finite and rigid. Furthermore, this study advances the discussion on dominant discourses of racial essentialism and racial authenticity and how they inform educators’ thinking, perceptions, and thus, support of college students.
Stephen Quaye (Committee Chair)
Elisa Abes (Committee Member)
David Pérez II (Committee Member)
Yu-Fang Cho (Committee Member)
176 p.
Educational Leadership; Higher Education
Asian American; Border Theory; college student development; racial identity; poststructuralism; transracial adoption

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ashlee, A. A. (2019). Neither, Nor, Both, Between: Understanding Transracial Asian American Adoptees' Racialized Experiences in College Using Border Theory [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1556291981659086

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ashlee, Aeriel. Neither, Nor, Both, Between: Understanding Transracial Asian American Adoptees' Racialized Experiences in College Using Border Theory. 2019. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1556291981659086.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ashlee, Aeriel. "Neither, Nor, Both, Between: Understanding Transracial Asian American Adoptees' Racialized Experiences in College Using Border Theory." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1556291981659086

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1556291981659086
734
© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.