Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Vol 19(5), Oct 2026, 635-648; doi:10.1037/dhe0000686
The study applied the principles of Collins’s (1986) outsider within framework by examining how racially minoritized women student leaders (RMWSL) perceive and navigate experiences of marginalization at persistently white institutions (PWIs). Using interpretative phenomenological analysis and interviews with 23 RMWSL, this study explored how race and gender impacted how they embody leadership, the messages they received about leadership, and how institutional efforts toward more inclusive leadership disproportionately burdened these leaders at PWIs. Findings revealed how RMWSL defined and valued themselves, navigated interlocking forms of oppression, and created space for themselves in persistently white environments. Implications for this study encompass the structural, cultural, and institutional factors that can support RMWSL in asserting their agency while challenging oppressive systems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)