Identity Development of College Students: Advancing Frameworks for Multiple Dimensions of Identity

The primary purpose of the book is to describe contemporary perspectives on the identity development of college students in the United States with an emphasis on multiple social identities.  Locating this focus in the historical foundational work of Erikson and Chickering, the book will trace the evolution of the study of identity in relation to contemporary research and theoretical frameworks. These contemporary perspectives are situated within a holistic description of identity that portrays identity as the intersection of context, personal characteristics, and social identities. As part of doing so, the book explores the nature of context, including inequitable power structures, and how context influences and is influenced by multiple social identities. They will utilize research on multiple identities as a springboard, including using critical theoretical frameworks to analyze these relationships, such as intersectionality, critical race theory, and queer theory. To illustrate different possibilities for conceptualizing relationships among multiple identities, the authors will use examples from diverse social identities, including race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion/spirituality, gender, social class, and disability.