The Meaning of Multiraciality: A Racially Queer Exploration of Multiracial College Students' Identity Production

(Hardback)

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The Meaning of Multiraciality: A Racially Queer Exploration of Multiracial College Students' Identity Production provides a comprehensive overview of Multiraciality as a term, experience, and identity using data from a study of Multiracial college students and well as the author's own experiences as a Multiracial person. Utilizing a racially queer framework, they discuss what it means to be a Multiracial insider (being a Multiracial researcher studying Multiracial study participants), the counter-stories of Multiracial college students, the theorizing that has emerged as a result, and the educational consequences and impacts on Mulitracial students overall. The author explores the following questions: How do Multiracial students produce their identities How do Multiracial students exercise their agency How does the notion of Multiraciality perpetuate and disrupt notions of race How can we expand theoretical understandings of race so that they take Multiracial people into account, specifically within educational settings The author illustrates the agentic ways in which Multiracial college students come to understand and experience the complexity of their racialized identity production. Their counter-narratives reveal an otherwise invisible student population, providing an opportunity to broaden critical discourses around education and race.

Reviews

At a time when many studying multiracial topics have changed their attention to structures and systems, The Meaning of Multiraciality reminds us of how critically important identity is - and that it's possible to spotlight both identity and context. By expertly weaving her own story and participants' stories as research, along with past literature and provocative prose, Aurora Chang is offering a brilliant theoretical intervention to help move our scholarship forward and also a heartfelt "love letter" to spur creativity toward better supporting Multiracial students. I can think of no one else with the capability, longevity, and bravery to write this book that should be required reading for all who want to disrupt the racial status quo.

--Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero, The Ohio State University

Based on interviews with 25 college students at a predominantly white university, Chang's masterful and accessible study is a game changer in regard to mixed race studies in higher education. Her analysis emphasizes that queerness extends beyond its origins as an interrogation of the dominant heteronormative and monosexual narratives to encompass all acts of counterhegemony. Consequently, Chang provides a potential framework from which to study multiracial individuals as "racial queers." This groundbreaking book not only expands the conversation of the topic but also provides an excellent platform for future research.

--G. Reginald Daniel, University of California, Santa Barbara

Author Bio

Dra. Aurora Chang is Director of Faculty Development and Career Advancement at George Mason University.