Racializing Digital Campus Spaces: A Critical Phenomenological Approach to Understanding (Re)Production Of Whiteness in Digital Campus Ecology

The landscape of higher education campus environments continues to change as student populations diversify (Parsons, 2023; Renn & Reason, 2013) and campus spaces extend into the digital realm. This critical phenomenological study examined organizational features that racialize digital campus ecology by examining the phenomena of interest, racialized digital campus spaces (RDCS). Through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with undergraduate students that focused on their experiences with RDCS and semi-structured interviews with administrators that focused on the organizational infrastructure and campus digital culture, findings revealed a complex understanding of campus ecology when reflecting on issues around race. I introduce Augmented Reality of Race, Space and Campus Ecology to acknowledge that while digital spaces, physical spaces, and issues around race exist more broadly in society, the merging of the three in the context of higher education creates conditions that previous literature and theories have not quite captured in relation to the perspectives of ‘modern’ college students today. This study offers insights into student development and organizational strategies for student affairs practitioners, faculty, policymakers, and critical researchers around racialized higher education spaces and organizations.