Identity Interconnections: Pursuing Poststructural Possibilities in Student Affairs Praxis (An ACPA Co-Publication)

Co-published with 

This book advocates an approach the authors call Identity Interconnections as a way of moving considerations of identity differences and commonalities from theory to socially just action in student affairs practice.

Through pursuing complex commonalities expansive enough to hold both similarities and differences, student affairs educators can ethically consider identity interconnections in such a way that does not diminish difference, but instead recognizes points of difference as opportunities for social justice action. By pursuing radical interconnectivity, student affairs educators can advance an interdependent understanding of inherited systems of power; recognizing the ways in which all systems (and thus all oppression, and all liberation) are interconnected. This interconnected insight can enable student affairs educators to extend beyond binary and oppositional thinking, and in turn, give rise to the formation of new coalitions. Finally, by listening with raw openness (allowing themselves, and encouraging their students, to be changed by others’ experiences), student affairs educators can facilitate identity development and social justice action as interrelated endeavors.

The editors have heard comments like, “This is all great in theory, but how can student affairs practitioners actually apply this?” This book answers that question by providing a theoretical framework and multiple practical examples for employing identity interconnections as expansive approaches to identity development and social justice action in student affairs.

Aeriel A. Ashlee, PhD (she/her/hers) is assistant professor and graduate director of the college counseling and student development master’s program at St. Cloud State University. Her teaching, scholarship, and activism are guided by her desire and commitment to facilitate healing and liberation in higher education. Prior to becoming faculty, Aeriel had a decade-long career in student affairs. Her research interests include feminist of color pedagogies of healing and transformation, transracial Asian American adoptees’ racialized experiences, and poststructural possibilities for student affairs praxis. Along with peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, Aeriel is the co-author of an award-winning book on social justice. She earned her master’s degree in college student personnel from the University of Maryland, College Park and her doctoral degree in student affairs and higher education from Miami University(Ohio).

Lisa D. Combs (she/her/hers) is currently a doctoral student at The Ohio State University in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Prior to Ohio State, she was a Program Coordinator in the Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs Office at Loyola University Chicago. Prior to working at Loyola University Chicago, Lisa also worked as a Coordinator for Campus Life at Illinois Institute of Technology and as a Graduate Assistant in the Office of Community Engagement and Service at Miami University of Ohio. Lisa’s research interests include identity interconnections, multiraciality in higher education, Filipinx identity development, and deconstructing social constructs around race. Lisa has been published in the Journal of College Student Development and also currently serves as the Co-Chair for the Multiracial Network in ACPA. She received her B.A in Political Science and English from The Ohio State University and her M.S. in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Miami University in Oxford Ohio.

Elisa S. Abes is associate professor at Miami University (Ohio) in the student affairs in higher educaiton program in the Department of Educational Leadership.