Preferred Name: Leah Hakkola

Employer: University of Maine

Position: Assistant Professor, Higher Education Program

Title of your program: Discourses of Difference in College Admissions

Description:
This paper examines how discourses of difference are constructed in college admissions processes and programing, with a focus on how language and images influence the college choice process for students and impact the goal to increase diversity in sustainable ways. Use of Critical Discourse Analysis highlights how college admissions representatives interpret and understand diversity and they communicate these understandings to prospective students. Methods include an analysis of interviews focusing on how recruiters understand “diversity” in their engagement with prospective students.
I am very much looking forward to networking and connecting with other scholars and practitioners in the field who are interested in engaging with critical theories and perspectives focusing on supporting diversity, equity and social justice in higher education.