Diversity-Supportive Features
Diversity-supportive features in higher education, such as academic programs and resource centers, have been found to reduce discrimination and improve the experiences and outcomes of students. This is especially the case for those marginalized by their race/ethnicity, sexuality, first-generation status, and/or the intersections of these identities with gender.
LGBTQ+ Features (U.S.)
Contested Diversity? The Institutionalization of LGBTQ+ Supportive Structures in U.S. Higher Education, 1980 to 2018
Authors: Hannah K. D’Apice & Christine Min Wotipka
This study seeks to understand the extent of and explanations for the institutionalization of sexuality and gender identity in U.S. higher education institutions (HEIs). Using original longitudinal data collected on a national probability sample of 234 four-year HEIs, covering 1980 to 2018, we examine whether and when HEIs establish two key lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) supportive features: LGBTQ resource centers and LGBTQ studies programs. We argue that sexuality and gender identity have not been institutionalized to the same extent as other diversity features because they remain contested or viewed with ambivalence in some HEIs. Findings suggest that institutions that already demonstrate support for gender diversity or are associated with other institutions that signal such support are more likely to institutionalize these supportive features. In the case of LGBTQ rights, HEIs may therefore be particularly responsive to their institutional environments.
Ethnic Studies Programs/Centers (U.S.)
Diversity and Interest Convergence: Examining the Rise of and Outcomes Related to Race/Ethnicity Structures in U.S. Higher Education Institutions
Authors: Hannah K. D’Apice
This study integrates organizational literature on neoinstitutionalism with critical race theory (CRT) literature on interest convergence to examine the relationship between the rise of different diversity structures in higher education, and subsequent relationships with students’ outcomes. Neoinstitutional literature indicates that U.S. higher education institutions (HEIs) increasingly experience cultural mandates to enact diversity-supportive structures and policies. However, the interest convergence thesis posits that educational policies and structures enacted in moments of convergence with the interests of dominant groups may fail to improve outcomes for historically minoritized groups. This paper quantitatively operationalizes the phenomenon of interest convergence around different diversity-supportive structures in U.S. HEIs.
First-Gen Offices/Programs (U.S.)
Proud to be First: Adoption of First-Generation Student Supportive Features in US Universities, 2000-2023
Authors: Jieun Song
I examine the extent to which US universities as organizations make efforts to recognize and improve first-gen students’ college experience. Drawing on original data collected from 234 colleges and universities across the US, I show different levels of commitment to supporting first-gen students. Through event history analysis, I also explore what sorts of universities are more likely to devote themselves to this newly added dimension of marginality in higher education.
Gender/Women’s Studies (Cross-National)
Women’s Studies as a Global Innovation
Authors: Christine Min Wotipka & Francisco O. Ramirez
Between 1970 and 2000 women’s studies curriculum in universities emerged in a wide range of countries and regions throughout the world. This project offers a comparative and longitudinal analysis of the adoption of women’s studies curricula, defined as the offering of the first women’s studies department, program, or degree at a university from 1970 to 2000. Using event history models of estimation, we test a number of different explanations at the national- and international-levels. We find that the initial adoption of women’s studies curriculum is positively influenced by global dynamics such as the diffusion of women’s studies activities and the timing of international women’s conferences. These global dynamics operate net of the positive influence of national factors such as the level of economic development and the degree of democracy. These global dynamics suggests the further development of a global logic of inclusiveness, transforming what counts as knowledge in higher education and leading to women’s studies as a global innovation.
Gender/Women’s Studies (Cross-National)
Adoption of Women’s and Gender Studies Programs: A Cross-National Analysis, 1970–2024
Authors: Christine Min Wotipka & Jieun Song
To what extent have universities around the world incorporated women's and gender studies? What kinds of sociocultural factors are associated with the adoption of women's and gender studies as university knowledge? We examine university- and country-level characteristics that foster (or hinder) the adoption of women's and gender studies defined as a department or academic program in a college or university offering a degree at the undergraduate or graduate level.
Gender/Women’s Studies (U.S.)
Women’s and Gender Studies Programs in U.S. Higher Education Institutions, 1980–2018
Authors: Jieun Song & Christine Min Wotipka
This study investigates the integration of gender studies within US universities, analyzing sociocultural factors influencing its adoption. Utilizing data collected from 234 universities in the US from 1988-2018, it examines institutional and contextual dynamics shaping the growth of gender studies programs.
Indigenous-Supportive Structures (Cross-National)
Indigenous Groups As Subjects Versus Participants in Global Higher Education: Comparing Courses of Study and Policies for Access in 500 Universities Worldwide
Authors: Hannah K. D’Apice
Indigenous communities have historically resisted systems of imperialism and built transnational advocacy movements to institutionalize their collective rights and sovereignties, including in education. This paper examines the extent to which 500 universities across 85 countries have institutionalized structures and policies supporting Indigenous groups. I use organizational and postcolonial theories to motivate quantitative analyses of the mechanisms predicting these university structures/policies. I argue that Indigenous advocacy matters more in explaining changes in higher education, as compared to explanations stemming from countries’ engagement with human rights. However, universities may also seek the status-related benefits of acknowledging Indigeneity through an allegedly diverse curriculum, while continuing to marginalize Indigenous stakeholders themselves. Universities must therefore intentionally allocate resources and opportunities for Indigenous communities.
SE Asia (Qualitative Study) (Cross-National)
Discourses of ‘Diversity’ in Southeast Asia Higher Education
Authors: Christine Min Wotipka et al.
Understandings of ‘diversity’ in higher education are typically dominated by discourses stemming from institutions in the Global North, particularly in the U.S. Less examined are how ‘diversity’ may vary within non-Western regions. This paper qualitatively examines discourses of ‘diversity’ as presented in university websites across Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, and Thailand.