Belonging in Honors - NCHC Monograph Series Call for Papers
The concept of belonging has gained traction in higher education over the course of the past decade. That concept, however, has a much longer history in fields such as psychology, evolutionary theory, or more recently social cognitive neuroscience. These fields converge to affirm the human need for belonging because it supports identity development, well-being and happiness. More importantly, social psychologists and student affairs scholars have demonstrated that a sense of belonging has implications for students' persistence and retention in college and graduate school. Because “belonging is inherently tied to our social identities and the nuanced forms of oppression experienced, and resisted by students from minoritized social identity groups” (Vaccaro and Newman 4), much of the work on belonging has focused on the nuanced needs of specific identity groups, especially students who were long excluded from institutions of higher education.
One of the strengths of honors education is our collective investment in building community among our students, faculty, staff, and administrators. This monograph concerns itself primarily with the essential but fluid sense of belonging and its relationship to more common concepts in the literature on honors education, such as diversity, inclusion, and community. Theorists and practitioners have contributed ideas for what constitutes best practices to create more inclusive honors programs and colleges and increase the diversity of our students' identities. Belonging in Honors proposes to build upon this rich literature to explore the structural changes as well as the critical practices and pedagogies implemented over the last decade to support all honors students from matriculation to graduation and to prepare them for a changing world. While a sense of belonging might be subjective and prove challenging to measure, it is essential to create space for excellence for a larger number of people. Honors practitioners’ reflections on, and systematic analyses of, the mechanics of belonging are essential to the identification of future directions and frameworks for honors education.
The editor of Belonging in Honors invites critical and scholarly submissions that reflect honors practices far and wide, qualitatively as well as quantitatively. Specific disciplinary approaches and clearly positioned voices that engage with, respond to, and add to the following prompts are expected:
Intersectionality and identity are key to understanding barriers to a sense of belonging to institutions whose audience was originally conceived more narrowly. What structural changes have been implemented to ensure that less represented minorities or differently abled students, for instance, also have a sense of belonging? How have efforts to give all students a sense of belonging impacted enrollment management, financial aid, curricular approaches and other practices affecting honors students’ experience in college.
Students, faculty, and staff will derive a sense of belonging from intentional and mindful practices. How do institutional size and demographic makeup impact what makes a successful strategy? What lessons can be applied across institutions?
If the literature on sense of belonging has clearly demonstrated its positive correlation to retention, few studies to date extend their analyses of retention to completion. How has the value of giving students a sense of belonging in honors been measured? Have such quantitative analyses been helpful in advocating for honors more broadly?
Honors educators have long been concerned about building and fostering community. Who is made to feel at home in honors? How has the increasing diversification of honors students’ identities led practitioners to foster community in new ways to provide all our students a sense of belonging?
Submission Guidelines & Deadlines
Submission of abstracts: 15 June 2023
Submission of essays: 1 November 2023
Submission
Traditional essays, the length of which may vary. The editor of this monograph encourages all authors to familiarize themselves with the NCHC Style Sheet. All submissions, solicited and unsolicited, will be peer-reviewed by the Publications Board of the National Collegiate Honors Council.
Questions, abstracts, and full essays should be sent to Anne Dotter at adotter@jccc.edu as word documents.
