In efforts to improve equity, selective college campuses are increasingly focused on recruiting and retaining first-generation students-those whose parents have not graduated from college. In
Geographies of Campus Inequality
, sociologists Benson and Lee argue that these approaches may fall short if they fail to consider the complex ways first-generation status intersects with race, ethnicity, and gender.
Drawing on interview and survey data from selective campuses, the authors show that first-generation students do not share a universal experience. Rather, first-generation students occupy one of four disparate geographies on campus within which they negotiate academic responsibilities, build relationships, engage in campus life, and develop post-college aspirations. Importantly, the authors demonstrate how geographies are shaped by organizational practices and campus constructions of class, race, and gender.
expands the understanding of first-generation students' campus lives and opportunities for mobility by showing there is more than one way to be first-generation.