*Note* This scheduling program was not designed by folks who do a lot with APA Style and unfortunately it defaults to listing authors in alphabetical order. We cannot fix this for this online schedule, but the author orders are posted in the order submitted in the printed program available via pdf here.
This presentation will focus on the trials and tribulations faced by students of color when negotiating the predominantly White system that is academia. White people, specifically, White women are the majority demographic of doctoral program graduates in the United States and the field of psychology (APA, 2012). Students of color occupy a liminal space in which they are celebrated for their diversity; at the same time, existing stereotypes of minorities are used to create narratives of their identity for them. The expectation to fit this narrative creates internal conflict for these students. Additionally, when minority students do not act according to these expected stereotypes, academia is ill-equipped to respond. Therefore, these students of color end up being typecast as “problematic” and “atypical.” This issue, though an important piece in the broader mosaic of multicultural issues in psychology, is not frequently acknowledged or deconstructed. Ignoring the problem perpetuates a system wherein students of color are disempowered and then question their ability to succeed (Ewing, Richardson, James-Meyers & Russell, 1996). This influences their progress through their graduate program of study. The presenters will deconstruct how this issue affects students’ progress in their academic program and negatively impacts overall well-being. For instance, this disempowerment can manifest itself as students of color trying to change their behavior to become a tokenized minority, between-group struggles, within-group distrust, and trying to “act White.” The presenters will also discuss factors that aid in graduate students’ success and overall well-being. These factors, internal and external, include identifying this phenomena as it occurs, not internalizing it, developing discourses of empowerment, forming healthy support systems, self-care, and confronting impostor syndrome, among others.
