Critical Whiteness Praxis in Higher Education

Zak Foste is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration at the University of Kansas. His research critically explores whiteness in American higher education. This work examines both how whiteness functions to underwrite racially hostile and unwelcoming campus climates for Students of Color and the ways in which white college students understand their relationship to race and whiteness. His most recent work has examined how whiteness structures students’ experiences in campus residence halls and community service-learning programs. Zak received his bachelors degree in sociology and political science from Western Illinois University, his masters degree in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Miami University, and his Ph.D. in Higher Education & Student Affairs from The Ohio State University. Tenisha L. Tevis is an Assistant Professor of Adult and Higher Education at Oregon State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Theory and Policy Studies with a cognate in Higher Education from The Pennsylvania State University, and B.A. and M.A. degrees in Sociology from California State University Sacramento. As a praxis scholar, her research attempts to disrupt dominant ideologies and biased institutional practices, in two substantive and intersecting areas: students’ transition to college - exploring how marginalized students continue to be disenfranchised by inequitable practices, and the confluence of leadership and identity in higher education - understanding how leadership practices contribute to the patterns of inequality and exclusion. Her most recent work explores Black women’s and white women’s leadership, respectively, and includes a systematic review of the college access literature to better inform college advising of Black students.