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Power, Race, and Higher Education

A Cross-Cultural Parallel Narrative

  • The book highlights a journey about awakening to white privilege and honest cross-cultural relationships
  • The book is presented in a parallel narrative structure that explores ethnodrama and other genres of arts-based research
  • The book demonstrates how a scholar of color navigates mentoring a white student when they had starkly opposing values and experiences

Part of the book series: Teaching Race and Ethnicity (RACE)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxiii
  2. Meeting Differences

    • Kakali Bhattacharya, Norman K. Gillen
    Pages 1-33
  3. Breaking Tensions, Building Bridges

    • Kakali Bhattacharya, Norman K. Gillen
    Pages 35-72
  4. Finding Self in Ethnodrama

    • Kakali Bhattacharya, Norman K. Gillen
    Pages 73-103
  5. Dialogues within Dialogues

    • Kakali Bhattacharya, Norman K. Gillen
    Pages 105-141
  6. The Breakdown and Coming Together

    • Kakali Bhattacharya, Norman K. Gillen
    Pages 143-188
  7. Pedagogical Practices

    • Kakali Bhattacharya, Norman K. Gillen
    Pages 189-199
  8. Back Matter

    Pages 201-206

About this book

"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."







Authors and Affiliations

  • Kansas State University, Kansas, USA

    Kakali Bhattacharya

  • Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, USA

    Norman K. Gillen

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Power, Race, and Higher Education

  • Book Subtitle: A Cross-Cultural Parallel Narrative

  • Authors: Kakali Bhattacharya, Norman K. Gillen

  • Series Title: Teaching Race and Ethnicity

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-735-1

  • Publisher: SensePublishers Rotterdam

  • eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)

  • Copyright Information: SensePublishers-Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2016

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-6300-735-1Published: 25 November 2016

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXIV, 206

  • Topics: Education, general

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access