“I’m not white”: counter-stories from “mixed race” women navigating PhDs

• Date: 12 January 2024
• Pages: 91-105
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-03-2023-0097
• Published date: 12 January 2024
• Author: Rhianna Garrett

“I’m not white”: counter-stories

from “mixed race”women

navigating PhDs

Rhianna Garrett

Department of Geography and Environment, Loughborough University,

Loughborough, UK

Abstract

Purpose –This paper critiques institutional whiteness and racial categorisation in UK higher education.This

is done through the representation of the complex narratives of “mixed race”women navigating their PhD

experiences in predominantly white institutions, when their identities have proximity to whiteness.

Design/methodology/approach –This study introduces five vignettes of “mixed race”women, gathered

from a wider study of 27 PhDs and early career researchers in UK higher education. The paper employs Yuval-

Davis’framework of belonging and bell hooks’approach to chosen versus forced marginality to create a

conceptual framework based on fluid agency and empowerment, recognising belonging as an ongoing process.

Findings–The findingsreveal how “mixed race”women can occupy a liminal space between belonging to and

rejecting racial categorisation, as they attempted to situate their self-identifications within the boundaries of

institutional whiteness.

Research limitations/implications –The study only utilises a small sample size of five counter-stories

from a larger study on PhD career trajectories, limiting its empirical claims. It also only engages with “mixed

race”women who have proximity to whiteness, encouraging research on different “mixed race”intersections.

Practical implications –This paper encourages more discussion around “mixed race”experiences of UK

higher education and critical engagement with higher education’s reliance on statistical data to understand

racialised communities.

Originality/value –This paper contributes new empirical insights into how whiteness is experienced when

“mixed race”women negotiate their relation to it in UK higher education. It also provides theoretical

advancements into understanding of institutional whiteness and critically engages with racial categorisation.

Keywords Gender, Ethnic minorities, Qualitative, Belonging, Higher education, Racial discrimination,

Mixed race

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

White supremacy in UK higher education is often discussed as a system of central

institutional power, and providing invisible supporting structures that uphold the needs of

the majority (Tate, 2014;Joseph-Salisbury, 2019). However, it is imperative to engage in a

more nuanced exploration of whiteness that captures its inherently hostile structure through

the stories of those who challenge it. This paper critiques institutional whiteness through the

representation of “mixed race”women’s counter-stories navigating higher education, when

their identities have proximity to whiteness. The stories revealed a liminal space between

belonging and rejecting racial categories, transforming depending on space and place, and

present a critique of higher education’s dependence on categorisation. This paper provides

new empirical insights into how whiteness is experienced when “mixed race”women

negotiate their relation to it in UK higher education.

Despite the presence of over two million “mixed race”Britons today contributing to one of

the fastest growing populations in the United Kingdom (UK) (Song, 2010), there is a distinct

lack of scholarship on how “mixed race”people experiences higher education. Literature on

“mixed race”identities and experiences are dominated by the United States (US) and the UK

(Fozdar, 2022). However, the US provides more developed language that not only describes

“mixed race”experiences, but identifies prejudices that “mixed race”people experience

Counter-stories

from “mixed

race”women

91

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 30 March 2023

Revised 22 September 2023

6 November 2023

Accepted 26 November 2023

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 44 No. 1, 2025

pp. 91-105

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-03-2023-0097