Power, Race, and Higher Education: A Cross-Cultural Parallel Narrative

Power, Race, and Higher Education is a parallel narrative written by two scholars. Kakali Bhattacharya, who is a South Asian woman who immigrated to the United States to pursue her graduate degrees and eventually became an academic. Kent Gillen is a White man who focuses on completing his doctoral studies under Kakali’s supervision. Kent comes to a crossroad where he has to interrogate his sociocultural position, how he benefits from a White supremacist system, even if he did not ask for any of the benefits or had his personal plights. Embedded in the dilemmas are implications for cross-cultural qualitative research, understanding of how whiteness functions, and how we attend to our deepest wounds as we work to become allies and build bridges.

This book can be used in undergraduate and graduate courses in race and culture studies in the social sciences and humanities, qualitative methods courses, and graduate classes that help students with writing up qualitative research. Individual graduate students and professors who advise graduate students may benefit from this text.

“Riveting, courageous, innovative and brave! This spell-binding book not only holds your attention, it holds you to account as you read a beautifully integrated narrative that weaves theory, research, artistry and practice into an utterly compelling positioning of our power relations within society and the academy.” Rita Irwin, Ph.D., Professor of Art Education in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, and Associate Dean of Teacher Education, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver

“It is a book that will inform scholarly conversations with both undergraduate and graduate students, and influence future qualitative researchers.” Enrique Alemán, Jr., Ph.D., Professor & Chair, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, University of Texas at San Antonio

“Told in honest and straightforward language, this engaging book has much to say about scholarly responsibility, White privilege, and our necessary reconciliation toward equity and a deep awareness of self.” Johnny Saldaña, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University

Kakali Bhattacharya is an associate professor at the Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Norman K. Gillen is an adjunct instructor, who teaches English and Industrial Communications at Del Mar College.