“Universities ain’t what they seem like on TV”

Abstract

As a doctoral student, I was tasked to write a literature review for my dissertation, which focused on the experiences of Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx undergraduate students at a predominantly white university in the Northeast. Rather than writing a traditional literature review, I wrote a critical race theory counterstory to convey my findings. Drawing on a systematic analysis of books, peer-reviewed articles, and reports related to Students of Color in higher education, I wrote a story about a first-generation Xicano student who does a college-going presentation at his former high school about racism and resistance in higher education. Specifically, from my analysis of literature, I created four subthemes that are addressed in this story: “The Impact of Segregation,” “From a Brown Space to a Hella White Space,” “Microaggressions in Higher Education,” and “Resistance and Counter-spaces.” Ultimately, I argue that counterstorytelling allowed me to stay true to myself while making my research accessible to communities outside of academia.