Race and Class Matters at an Elite College

by Elizabeth Aries

Overview

In Race and Class Matters at an Elite College, Elizabeth Aries provides a rare glimpse into the challenges faced by black and white college students from widely different class backgrounds as they come to live together as freshmen. Based on an intensive study Aries conducted with 58 students at Amherst College during the 2005-2006 academic year, this book offers a uniquely personal look at the day-to-day thoughts and feelings of students as they experience racial and economic diversity firsthand, some for the first time.

Through online questionnaires and face-to-face interviews, Aries followed four groups of students throughout their first year of college: affluent whites, affluent blacks, less financially advantaged whites from families with more limited education, and less financially advantaged blacks from the same background. Drawing heavily on the voices of these freshmen, Aries chronicles what they learned from racial and class diversity—and what colleges might do to help their students learn more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781592137275
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	09/28/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	344 KB

About the Author

Elizabeth Aries is Professor of Psychology at Amherst College. She is the author of Men and Women in Interaction: Reconsidering the Differences and Adolescent Behavior: Readings and Interpretations.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 
1. Becoming a More Diverse College: Challenges and Benefits 
2. Investigating Race and Class Matters on Campus 
3. First Encounters with Race and Class 
4. Negotiating Class Differences 
5. Relationships across Race and Class 
6. Learning from Racial Diversity 
7. Learning from Class-Based Diversity 
8. Negotiating Racial Issues 
9. As the Year Ended 
10. Meeting the Challenges of Diversity 
Appendix A: On-Line Survey Measures 
Appendix B: Interview Questions 
Notes 
Reference 
Index

Editorial Reviews

Amherst College psychology professor Aries breaks new ground with this study of four groups of students ("affluent whites, affluent blacks, whites with high financial needs, limited family education, or both" and similarly situated blacks) based on online questionnaires and individual interviews. Although the classroom is not absent from this study, the author's focus is on the more personal and social "day-to-day experiences" of these students, their perceptions of themselves and others through the lenses of race and class, what relationships they build and how they are informed by identity issues. Aries presents the issues students face when coping with class and race differences, and assesses the "benefits, if any... gained from racial and class diversity." The author's keen sense that these major themes are revealed in students' specific experiences enlivens and informs (for example, how a student's summer plans are affected by race and class). Fully cognizant of the atypicality of Amherst students, she recognizes that "the matters of race and class that students are dealing with on campus were not unique to this institution, [but] are issues being dealt with or avoided throughout the larger society." (Oct.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

"Finally, a case study that skillfully unpacks the problems of race and privilege, the less visible inheritance of social class, and the well-intentioned but unfinished campus efforts at environmental engineering. Elizabeth Aries’ insights and recommendations are as serious and relevant as the vexing challenges our colleges face."
—Eugene M. Tobin, Program Officer for the Liberal Arts Colleges Program at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, former President of Hamilton College, and co-author of Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education

From the Publisher