Race and Rurality: Considerations for Advancing Higher Education Equity

This book offers context, research, policy, and practice-based recommendations centering college access and success for a historically overlooked population: rural Students and Communities of Color.

Through an exploration of how colleges and universities can effectively welcome students from rural areas who identify as Asian and Pacific Islander, Black and African American, Hispanic and Latinx, and/or Indigenous, this text challenges the misleading narrative that rural is white, thereby placing these students and their communities in conversation with national higher education discourse. Rich contributions on scholarship, practice, and policy address the intersection of racism and spatial inequities and consider the unique opportunities and challenges that rural Students and Communities of Color face across the United States’ higher education landscape. Chapters provide direction on creating equitable policies and practices, as well as details of the assets, resources, and networks that support this population’s success.

This edited collection provides a wealth of insight into the recruitment, access, persistence, and retention of rural Students of Color, equipping higher education researchers, practitioners, administrators, and policymakers with the knowledge they need to better account for and support rural students and communities across race and ethnicity.

Tyler Hallmark is Program Associate of Higher Education at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Higher Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA.

Sonja Ardoin is Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs at Clemson University, USA.

Darris R. Means is Associate Professor of Higher Education and Executive Director for Rural and Community-Based Education at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.