Soul Session Sundays: Blueprint for Action
Soul Session Sundays (SSS) is an informal space created for a microcosmic community of black Harvard students to relax, reflect, and connect each Sunday, for five weeks, from 12-2pm in Adams Upper Common Room. The purpose of SSS is three-fold. It is: (1) a space for a consistent group of 10-15 black Harvard students to relax over food, music, and good conversation, (2) a space for forming close relationships with those who black experiences one otherwise would have never crossed paths with, (3) a space for personal reflection on the person you were when you came to Harvard, who you are now, and the person you’re becoming. Students will not just be reflecting on their blackness but the various other parts of their identities. The ultimate hope for SSS is for it to increase black students’ sense of confidence and self-compassion during their time at Harvard. Because with greater confidence and self-compassion will come a great ability for individual students to form bonds within and outside of the black community – increasing their happiness, fulfillment, and social capital during and (especially) after their time at Harvard. Based on personal experience and preliminary interviews, it is not uncommon for black students who only pursue close friendships or mentorship relationships with other black students.
While I recognize the question is a bit taboo, I’ve begun to wonder if the insularity of our networks could – in the long run – hinder our social and professional success in some ways. What does it mean for black students to attend a PWI if we are not becoming deeply ingrained in predominantly white social and professional networks. While I understand and deeply value all-black spaces on campus, my career and personal life has been thoroughly enriched by people and resources outside of black spaces. One mission of SSS is to strengthen undergraduate formal and informal social/professional networks as a means of helping ensure that (1) students enter the “real world” with robust informal and formal networks and (2) students have the skills and confidence to grow their networks going forward. In the spirit of this mission, I’ve chosen to tackle the following research question: How do Harvard undergraduate informal and formal networks inform post-Harvard informal and formal networks? By understanding this connection, I can begin to think more deeply about the self-awareness and/or social skills that SSS should focus on helping its members develop.
I would like evidence that helps me understand the role of interracial/ethnic friendships and mentorships in professional success after Harvard. I will speak to graduates (who have graduated between about 1-30 years ago) about their social networks during their time at Harvard, where they made friends, and how they pursued professional relationships after Harvard. The deliverable of my action research will be a documentary/video of black Harvard alumni telling the stories of how they made friends and mentorship connections during and after Harvard. The audience for this actionable knowledge will be myself (and the rest of the SSS team), SSS members (if completed in time, we’ll have a ‘movie night’ and discussion), and future Harvard students who enter this university. I feel that the documentary will be reminder to black students that we are the most recent participants of a legacy that has lasted many, many years.
Literature Review
Black Students at Predominantly White Institutions
When black students enter predominantly white institutions, we encounter expected and unexpected obstacles. One study from 2006 found that 98.5% of Black students reported experiences of discrimination on campus (Prelow, Mosher, & Bowman). Also, black males feel a persistent need to prove their competence (Harper et al., 2011).
Community Cultural Wealth and Social Integration
Racially marginalized groups can benefit from their culture being acknowledged and integrated into their educational experiences (Francique, et. al 2015). Race and ethnicity are deemed “cultural differences” in educational context, as culture is “behaviors and values that are learned, shared, and exhibited by a group of people” (Yosso 2005).
Cultural capital is defined as “instruments for the appropriation of symbolic wealth socially designated as worthy of being sought and possessed” (Bourdieu 1977). This concept is normatively rooted in White, male, upper-middle-class wealth. A parallel term, for communities of color, is “community cultural wealth. Community cultural wealth is “the compilation of a person’s abilities, knowledge, skills, and contacts that are utilized by people and communities of color to survive and resist macro and micro-forms of oppression” (Yosso 2005).
Tinto (1993) conducted research on student attrition rates. They found that students’ interactions with peers and faculty are what make up the students social system, contribute to their social integration, and influence their commitment to the institution. On the other hand, few interactions and/or negative interactions lead to lower feelings of connectedness to school and a higher chance of leaving the school altogether. According to the sources I have found, researcher Tabitha Grier-Reed is leading the body of research that seeks to understand the role of informal networks for black students at predominantly white institutions. She studies a group called the “African American Students Network” (AASN) – a (revolving) group of 30 black students at a PWI who meet weekly for lunch and discuss social and academic experiences and concerns. Through this research of black student networks, Grier-Reed and her team have found that students who participated in the AASN were more socially integrated and were less likely to drop out of school.
My research process to address my question (“How do Harvard undergraduate informal and formal networks inform post-Harvard informal and formal networks?”) will also involve looking at the social networks of black students, but I will also need to conduct research on alumni of the school. From what I can tell during this preliminary research stage, there is currently no research on the carry-over of undergraduate informal and formal networks to post-graduate informal and formal networks. I also have not yet found research on the extent to which either network is correlated with professional success.
Critical Race Theory
Critical race theory (CRT) can be used to elucidate the experiences of students in their educational environments by evaluating the roles of race and racism in institutions as a means to eventually eradicate racism. Critically, CRT draws attention to (a) racism as endemic in US society; (b) the centraliy of experiential knowledge (storytelling); (c) challenge of liberalism; (d) whiteness as a property interest; and interest convergence principle. This action research study will be using some parts of CRT to elucidate the network-related obstacles that black students face, with an ultimate goal of eradicating these obstacles or mitigating them as much as we can.
Informal, Intentional Therapeutic Spaces for Black Students
Now, what would a space look like that helps black students build their informal and formal networks?
To cope with the stressful aspects of these obstacles, many black students at PWIs already seek out formal and informal social resources. Through black student organizations, organic friendships, and mental health services we give ourselves ways to introspect and reflect. Research shows that black students usually rely on more informal networks to cope, rather than seeking out more formal counseling or advising from credible sources (Constantine 2003 and Chiang et al. 2004). The value of these “indigenous coping strategies” have recently been getting more recognition.
Research on group counseling by Irving Yalom (1995) links group processes to 11 “therapeutic factors”: catharsis, cohesion, interpersonal learning, development of new socializing techniques, imitative behavior, imparting of information, altruism, corrective recapitulation of the primary family group, instillation of hope, universality, and existential factors. Yalom considers cohesion (mediated by acceptance), catharsis, and interpersonal learning to be one of the most important of these factors. Cohesion is “the bonds of caring and connectedness that develop between group members”; catharsis is “emotional release”; interpersonal learning is “members learning from each other within the social microcosm of the group”. Interpersonal learning can involve developing new social techniques. One of these techniques involve (1) sharing a feeling with each other and (2) identifying a new social technique to assuage that feeling (Grier-Reed 2013).
Unlike traditional counseling groups, informal networking groups for students (i.e. “AFAM”) can have very therapeutic aspects that improve the mental and social wellbeing of the students involved.
Methodology and Methods
I will be conducting one cycle of action research. I have decided not to implement and evaluate my action plan as my research for a couple of reasons, including that many of the impacts of SSS are not measurable and may not become evident until years into the future.
Therefore, in this single cycle of action research, I ideally would want data on (1) the formal and informal networks of current Harvard students and (2) the formal and informal networks of Harvard alumni. Because the SSS will be an informal collection of data from current Harvard students (through conversations and reflections), I will focus my action research outside of the SSS themselves and on alumni networks.
I will be conducting these “expert interviews” with Harvard Alumni who have graduated between 1 and 30 (or more) years ago and asking each a set of questions about their networks during their time at Harvard and their current networks. I aim to interview a total of 50 Harvard alumni. During this interview process, I will ask 6-8 of them to come into the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning to film their interviews. I will compile clips from these interviews to create a short video that tells the story of the importance of undergraduate social networks on post-graduate social and professional success.
| Research Question | Data Collection |
| What were the racial, gender, age, academic, and professional makeups of black Harvard students’ networks during their undergraduate studies? | I will ask each interviewee to draw their “ego-network” that consists of the eight people they had their most ‘important conversations with’ during their undergraduate years. |
| How did the makeup of their undergraduate networks inform the makeup of their postgraduate networks? | I will ask each interviewee the following questions: (1) Do you find it easier or more difficult to make friends after college, (2) Do you consider your network to be more diverse or less diverse now than it was in college, and (3) Do you wish you did anything differently in your friendship or professional networks during your time at Harvard? |
As a current student, I hold an interesting positionality as a researcher. I will be younger than my interviewees. I will be friends with some of them (recent graduates) and strangers to others. I anticipate that my positionality as a black, young, Harvard student will make the interviews a bit more natural.
In regards to ethical conduct. It will be important for me to formally ask all my interviewees for permission with the consent form. I will need additional consent forms for those whom I will be filming if I publish their media.
I also want to note that these are the current research methods I plan to use, but I do not want to discount the potential value of data that comes from SSS participants, themselves. While conducting this action research with alumni and running SSS, I am also actively thinking about how data from SSS can be collected and analyzed over time. A regular survey asking students about how many new professors or friends they’ve connected with in the past week could be informative, but invasive. However, I do not want to miss any opportunity to collect valuable information that could positively contribute to the future of SSS at Harvard.
https://uleah.com/2019/02/18/soul-session-sundays-harvard/
Bibliography
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In J. Karabel & A. H. Halsey (Eds.), Power and ideology in education(pp. 487–511). New York: Oxford University Press.
Carter-Francique, A.R., Hart, A. & Cheeks, G. J Afr Am St (2015). Examining the Value of Social Capital and Social Support for Black Student-Athletes’ Academic Success. Journal of African American Studies. 19: 157. https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1007/s12111-015-9295-z
Grier-Reed, T. (2013). The African American Student Network: An Informal Networking Group as a Therapeutic Intervention for Black College Students on a Predominantly White Campus. Journal of Black Psychology. 39(2). 169-184.
Grier-Reed, T. and Wilson, R.J. (2016). The African American Student Network: An Exploration of Black Students’ Ego Networks at a Predominantly White Institution. Journal of Black Psychology. 42(4). 374-386.
Harper, S. R., Quaye, S. J. (2007). Student organizations as venues for Black identity expression and development among African American male student leaders. Journal of College Student Development, 48, 127-144.
Prelow, H. M., Mosher, C. E., Bowman, M. A. (2006). Perceived racial discrimination, social support, and psychological adjustments among African American college students. Journal of Black Psychology, 32, 442-454.
Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Yalom, I. (1995). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (4th ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69–91.