Researcher Identity Memo

As a bisexual-identified gay-partnered woman and student affairs practitioner, I strongly believe that the experiences that LGBTQ students, staff and faculty can be dramatically different from those of the heterosexual populations within a campus community. I also believe that there has been far too little research and consideration of the experiences, challenges, accomplishments and roles of the LGBTQ community, including students, staff and faculty, within campus communities. Kuh (2010) states; the “all-too-thin knowledge base about GBLT students, staff, and faculty consistently describes the worrisome, unacceptable differences between how they and their straight peers experience the college campus” (3).  How we experience our educational journeys as students, faculty and staff is indelibly colored and influenced by our gender and sexual orientation identities as well as by our ethnic, socio-economic, religious, spiritual, family-roles identities. It is at the point of these identity intersections that we are defined.

I am currently a graduate student at UHM and work as an advisor at HPU. In both campus communities I have been subject to experiences that I recognize have been directly affected by my perceptions of my world as an LGBTQ woman. Although I believe that my identity as a bi woman who is gay partnered is a vital and integral aspect of my identity I do not, and never have, felt defined or limited by it. In fact, I strongly believe that my sexual orientation identity is one of the most valuable identity components that enhances my ability to be a resourceful and passionate student affairs professional. Additionally, as a mother to a young child and recognizing that our “non-traditional” family is going to face challenges, possible discrimination and difficulties, I feel that it is my recognition of this unfair and inhumane behavior which informs my conviction to give voice and recognition to challenged and under-represented student populations.

At this juncture of my life as a researcher and practitioner, I am focusing on the experience of self-identified LGBTQ students and educators within their educational journeys and careers, and how critical incidents have or have not informed their LGBTQ identity or vice-versa. Eventually, I would like my research to focus on the correlation between campus communities that appear to foster a high comfort zone for its LGBTQ population and LGBTQ student and educator outcomes.  

I fully acknowledge that the interpretations of these significant experiences are influenced by my personal paradigms. As part of the LGBTQ community on both campuses that are included in this study, I have personal impressions and perspectives about how the LGBTQ aspect of my identity influences and colors the experiences that I have as a student at UHM and as an educator at HPU. I have focused my energies for my studies on collecting the anecdotal stories of students and educators on these campuses in order to distill the critical incidents that have shaped or been shaped by their sexual orientation identity component.