Why is this still happening?": The Role of Archival Interaction in Ethnic/Racial Identity Development and Institutional Sense of Belonging in Korean American Students

Abstract

Institutional archives can be places of both empowerment and also erasure for people of color. A central question to this research is how does interacting with archival materials that reflect one’s racial and ethnic identity, especially for students who have been minoritized, impact one’s sense of belonging on campus? This study investigates the roles that academic institutional archives play in fostering racial and ethnic identity exploration among students of color, more specifically Korean American students, and further understand how these experiences of interacting with archival materials impact their sense of belonging at their institution.