About the Research
The purpose of this research was to explore and understand the experiences of fat students on college and university campuses. Specifically, the research team was interested in how participants experienced navigating campus places, spaces, and structures (for example campus buildings, chairs/beds/furniture in classrooms, dining halls, residence halls, athletic facilities, and other campus buildings). In short, we wanted to know what it is like for participants on campus in their body and the places and spaces they feel at home/comfortable in their body, where they feel uncomfortable on campus in their body, and how they navigate those feelings.
During the Fall of 2021 the #FatOnCampus research team engaged in a power-conscious collaborative photovoice project with 11 college student partners who self-identified as fat. Specifically, each student expressed having experienced fatphobia and sizeism on campus including difficulty with campus systems and physical structures. Part of the photovoice methodology involves exhibiting the photos and inviting stakeholders to engage with the images and narratives of the students involved to elicit action around the issues that are important to them.
This #FatOnCampus website is designed to bring the photos, stories, and experiences of these students to a wider audience. In conjunction with some of the student collaborators we will be targeting specific associations, higher education leaders, and other relevant groups with an invitation to engage the page and to incorporate the experiences of these students as they think about any work around campus place and space; and how to make them more inclusive, welcoming, and comfortable for a variety of bodies.
We invite you to engage and share the page widely, use these stories and images as part of professional development conversations, higher education and student affairs practitioner education, and research methods courses and examinations. In addition to this virtual exhibition the #FatOnCampus research team will also host traditional in-person exhibitions in the coming year.
Meet The Team
TJ Stewart
Terah J. Stewart, PhD (he/him) is an assistant professor of higher education and student affairs at Iowa State University. His research and writing focus on people, populations that are hypermarginalized and/or those who have stigmatized identities including: college students engaged in sex work, fat students on campus, identity-based student activism. He also does conceptual and empirical work on antiblackness in non-black communities of color. His work often centers critical disruptive onto-epistemological frameworks and theories to destabilize dominant ways of knowing and being; including Black/endarkened feminist, womanist, and afropessimist perspectives.
His research and writing has appeared in Action Research, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, Journal Committed to Scholarship on Race and Ethnicity, and the Journal of College Student Development. Dr. Stewart is the co-author of Identity-Based Student Activism: Power and Oppression on College Campuses (2020, Routledge); and author of Sex Work on Campus (2022, Routledge).
Roshaunda Breeden
Roshaunda L. Breeden, PhD (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at East Carolina University. As a critical scholar and researcher, Dr. Breeden explores questions of equity and inclusion in higher education. Rooted in participatory and arts-based approaches, she brings an intersectional lens to understanding the roles of power and inequality in shaping educational environments and outcomes for historically marginalized students, staff, and communities. Her research departs from more traditional approaches, which are often jargon-laden and slow to reach decision-makers, to modes of scholarship that are timely and digestible for all.
Joan Collier
Joan Collier, PhD (she/her) is a scholar and practitioner with 10+ years’ experience in administration, teaching, and service within higher education. As an organizational strategist and EDI practitioner, she is a thought partner to leaders seeking to build organization and individual capacity to navigate differences, practice cultural humility, diminish disparities in outcomes – particularly for historically minoritized populations, confront bias, and repair harm done through interpersonal and structural bias.
Dr. Collier is currently the Assistant Vice President for Equity and Inclusion at Rutgers University and is an Affiliate Faculty member in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University- New Brunswick. She is a #FirstGenDoc, co-founder of the #CiteASista project, and proud alumna of Georgia State University and the University of Georgia.
Meg Evans
Meg Evans, PhD (they/them) currently serves as the Director of Education and Research at a national justice-based educational non-profit. They have worked for a decade and a half as a student affairs practitioner, primarily in queer and trans student services and housing. They also currently hold a board position with the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS). Meg has a bachelors in Outdoor Leadership from Warren Wilson College, a master’s in Community Leadership from Duquesne University, and a PhD from the Mary Frances Early College of Education at UGA. Their research focuses on student, staff, and faculty activism, advocacy and resistance in the academy. Prior to their time spent in student affairs, Meg worked as a middle school teacher, an emergency medical technician, and played professional football for the Pittsburgh Passion. But their all-time favorite role is being a parent to their son, Zeke.
Dan Scanlon
A native of Buffalo, NY, Dan (he/him) completed bachelor's and master's degrees in Germanic Studies at Purdue University, a master's degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration at Buffalo State College and is currently a Ph.D. Student in Higher Education at Iowa State University. Formerly a high school German teacher, he worked at the International Institute in Dortmund, Germany as Coordinator for International Exchanges and Educational Seminars. He taught German to persons of migration background and assisted refugees during their acclimation to German life. He has co-moderated several transatlantic discussion panels on various topics of social, cultural, and political interest.
Erin Weston
Erin Weston, PhD (she/her) is the Assistant Director for Services in the Division of Academic Enhancement at the University of Georgia. Dr. Weston has over 20 years of higher education experience with past positions in first-year experience, summer bridge programs, academic advising, and residence life. In 2021 she was recognized nationally for her work with first-year students. Dr. Weston holds a Ph.D. in College Student Affairs from the University of Georgia. Her dissertation explored white student engagement in anti-racism. Her ongoing research is focused on white racial identity and the experiences of fat-bodied college students.
Rachel Wagner
Rachel Wagner, EdD, is an Associate Professor in Higher Education and Student Affairs in the Department of Educational and Organizational Leadership at Clemson University. Rachel has presented on gender, racism, dialogue, and social justice education at universities nationwide. Her research aims to understand how post-secondary environments can support human flourishing. Specifically, her scholarship centers on critical and emancipatory perspectives of equity and social justice in higher education through two primary areas of inquiry: (1) gender aware and expansive practice in higher education, and (2) social justice approaches to student affairs practice. Along with Dr. Chase Catalano, she edited Advising and Supporting in Student Affairs. She received the Harry Cannon Outstanding Professional Award (2014) and the Outstanding Research Award (2015) from ACPA's Coalition on Men and Masculinities.