Faculty

The Research Hub is excited to share our latest resource, which is a guide to help bridge students identify their cultural wealth. Even with the preparation and community that Bridge Programs provide, students may still face challenges in their graduate programs. While racially minoritized students are often able to overcome these challenges by drawing on various forms of cultural capital they possess, the forms of cultural capital they utilize are often overlooked and unacknowledged in the academy.

The level of support that PhD programs provide students receive when searching for a research group varies widely across disciplines. While some students come in with a clear sense of their research interests and potential advisors, others may struggle to find the right fit without adequate guidance. Both groups may face challenges, whether feeling overwhelmed by the process or discovering incompatibilities with their chosen research group.

Abstract: There is growing awareness that established structures of higher education are often predicated on problematic assumptions about merit, excellence, and rigor. Doctoral qualifying exams, for example, are required to advance to candidacy in many Ph.D. programs despite decades of documented concerns about the implications of standard modes for student equity and well-being. As more Ph.D. programs move to reform these exams and candidacy requirements, it is important to understand how Ph.D. programs, as academic organizations, construct the significance of the qualifying exam.