Race on Campus: Debunking Myths with Data - Softcover

Park, Julie J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1682532321 ISBN 13: 9781682532324

Publisher: Harvard Education Press, 2018

Synopsis

2020 Critics' Choice Book Award, American Educational Studies Association (AESA)

In Race on Campus, Julie J. Park argues that there are surprisingly pervasive and stubborn myths about diversity on college and university campuses, and that these myths obscure the notable significance and admirable effects that diversity has had on campus life.  
 
Based on her analysis of extensive research and data about contemporary students and campuses, Park counters these myths and explores their problematic origins. Among the major myths that she addresses are charges of pervasive self-segregation, arguments that affirmative action in college admissions has run its course and become counterproductive, related arguments that Asian Americans are poorly served by affirmative action policies, and suggestions that programs and policies meant to promote diversity have failed to address class-based disadvantages. In the course of responding to these myths, Park presents a far more positive and nuanced portrait of diversity and its place on American college campuses.
 
At a time when diversity has become a central theme and goal of colleges and universities throughout the United States, Race on Campus offers a contemporary, research-based exploration of racial dynamics on today’s college campuses.

About this title

About the Author

Julie J. Park, an associate professor of education at the University of Maryland, College Park, studies race, religion, and social class in higher education, including the diverse experiences of Asian American students. Her first book, When Diversity Drops: Race, Religion, and Affirmative Action in Higher Education (Rutgers University Press, 2013), addresses how bans on race-conscious admissions affect the everyday lives of students. Her work has also appeared in outlets like the Washington Post, Huffington Post, and Chronicle of Higher Education. She earned her PhD in education from UCLA and BA from Vanderbilt University. Raised in the Midwest, she now calls the Washington, DC, metro region home.

From the Back Cover

At a moment when college campuses have become a new front in the culture wars, Race on Campus offers a research-based analysis of racial dynamics and student life that serves as a much-needed rejoinder to the scorching rhetoric. Julie J. Park addresses several major myths about diversity on campus including charges of pervasive self-segregation, misconceptions about affirmative action, and the theory of mismatch. Park tackles these thorny issues by unpacking the myths and mindsets that too often shape thinking about diversity and its effect on college life.
 
Engagingly written and unflinching in its analysis, Race on Campus dissects widely held misconceptions about diversity and spotlights its salutary effects on the college-campus experience.
 
"In Race on Campus, Julie Park does just what the title promises—investigates with empirical rigor persistent questions surrounding diversity in college admissions and campus life and makes research-based recommendations for public policy and institutional practice. Authoritative in content yet accessible in tone, it should be mandatory reading for every college administrator!”
—Beverly Daniel Tatum, author, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race, and president emerita, Spelman College

"Park cuts through the many false narratives around affirmative action, presenting accessible, evidence-based arguments for why race still matters in higher education. A must-read for anyone interested in better understanding how race does, and more importantly does not, play out before and after students arrive to selective college campuses.”
—Lorelle Espinosa, assistant vice president, American Council on Education
 
Julie J. Park is an associate professor of education at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Education Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1682532321
• ISBN 13: 9781682532324
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208