Dissertation Research
My dissertation examines the socio-political construction of mixed ethno-racial identities in Denmark. It is the main contention of my dissertation that Denmark is no longer able to claim ‘racial exceptionalism’ due to the significant increase in ethno-racial diversity over the past four decades. Historically, Nordic Europe has been overwhelmingly White but undergone significant demographic changes due to immigration and increasing intermarriage rates during the last four decades. In response to increasing diversity, Denmark now has the most punitive immigration laws in the EU and a decidedly anti-immigration socio-political climate and public discourse. Despite the increase in racial diversity, race is notably absent from the public discourse. The state also does not enumerate official racial categories and instead categorise the population as either Ethnic-Danish, immigrant, or descendants of immigrants.
Due to the lack of statistical data on racial groupings and the negative connotation of eugenics, race is considered a biological fallacy and a taboo. Therefore, race is also noticeably absent from academic literature on Danish society and topics such as ethnicity, nationality, immigration, group-conflicts, and multiculturalism. In place of a racial vocabulary, politicians and scholars substitute talking about race with ‘colour-blind’ and ‘race-neutral’ language, which result in a public discourse where the corporeality or race goes unrecognised. Taking these factors into account, I investigate how an increasing population of Ethnic-Danes with one immigrant parent comes to embody a racial identity by navigating their mixed identity in a socio-political context where race is not a recognised social category.
With an interview sample (N:70) of minority-racialised Ethnic-Danes, I show that the immigration discourse affects multi-racial Ethnic-Danes through racialisation processes and self-identity projects and that racialisation is independent of immigration background. For example, from the interview data and field observations, I find that the frequency of racialisation as minority-ethnic operates along what I call a ‘racialisation continuum’. All participants self-identified their skin colour on a scale from 1-9, and participants with darker skin are minority-racialised more frequently than those with lighter skin tones. Participants reported how racialisation processes accentuate feelings of being seen as ‘authentic’ or ‘inauthentic Danish’. Multi-racial Danes who can ‘pass for White’ can better avoid social interactions that bring up questions about their 'Danishness'. Hence, multi-racial Danes, who phenotypically present closer to the ideal-type Dane, also get more consistent access to the collective identity Ethnic-Dane. Their experiences show how' Danishness' equates with Whiteness and that Ethnic-Danish is a White hegemonic construct that determines the extent to which mixed Danes are afforded cultural citizenship and in-group status in social interactions.
Due to the lack of statistical data on racial groupings and the negative connotation of eugenics, race is considered a biological fallacy and a taboo. Therefore, race is also noticeably absent from academic literature on Danish society and topics such as ethnicity, nationality, immigration, group-conflicts, and multiculturalism. In place of a racial vocabulary, politicians and scholars substitute talking about race with ‘colour-blind’ and ‘race-neutral’ language, which result in a public discourse where the corporeality or race goes unrecognised. Taking these factors into account, I investigate how an increasing population of Ethnic-Danes with one immigrant parent comes to embody a racial identity by navigating their mixed identity in a socio-political context where race is not a recognised social category.
With an interview sample (N:70) of minority-racialised Ethnic-Danes, I show that the immigration discourse affects multi-racial Ethnic-Danes through racialisation processes and self-identity projects and that racialisation is independent of immigration background. For example, from the interview data and field observations, I find that the frequency of racialisation as minority-ethnic operates along what I call a ‘racialisation continuum’. All participants self-identified their skin colour on a scale from 1-9, and participants with darker skin are minority-racialised more frequently than those with lighter skin tones. Participants reported how racialisation processes accentuate feelings of being seen as ‘authentic’ or ‘inauthentic Danish’. Multi-racial Danes who can ‘pass for White’ can better avoid social interactions that bring up questions about their 'Danishness'. Hence, multi-racial Danes, who phenotypically present closer to the ideal-type Dane, also get more consistent access to the collective identity Ethnic-Dane. Their experiences show how' Danishness' equates with Whiteness and that Ethnic-Danish is a White hegemonic construct that determines the extent to which mixed Danes are afforded cultural citizenship and in-group status in social interactions.
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Dissertation Journal papers
Working drafts. Neither/Nor: Barriers to Cultural Citizenship for Multiracial Ethnic-Danes. In the first paper, I apply a modified version of Kim Claire’s “Racial Triangulation framework’ to explain the specific mechanism by which the everyday experiences of multiracial Danes confirm both their insider and outsider status. Multiracial Danes are valorised relative to immigrants and second-generation immigrants while continually ostracised as ‘other’ because of their skin colour and denied cultural citizenship. Multiracial Danes do not identify as second-generation immigrants yet often assumed foreign in daily interactions and spoken to in English. If they speak out against the negative discourse in social situations, White Danes respond by valorising them as not ‘like them’ but ‘one of us’. Overall, my research contributes to a sociological understanding of racialisation processes by revealing that a racial hierarchy can exist in a society devoid of racial options. Not ‘Just Danish’: How Young Multiracial ethnic-Danes Challenge White Hegemony. In the second paper, I analyse the differences between older and younger multiracial Danes and find that the understanding of race as a category and the salience of race for multi-racial Danes has changed over time concurrently with immigration trends and negative media coverage. The older generation is more likely to conform to White hegemony by trivialising racialised experiences. In contrast, I find that younger multiracial Danes have the knowledge and cultural capital to challenge Whiteness actively. They do this by claiming their multi-racial identity as a crucial part of their Danish identity and acknowledging race as a social fact that impacts their lives. Many young multi-racial participants also dispute that the public immigration debate is race-neutral and are active in organisations that support immigrants and refugees. I argue that young multi-racial Danes are uniquely positioned to push public discourse towards a better understanding of how Whiteness is integral to national identity and advocate for a broader Danish identity type that challenges White hegemony. 'Mixedness' and Immigrant Status in Denmark. In the third paper, I investigate how variation in mixed Danes ethno-racial self-identity depends on their family configuration and access to their immigrant or non-White parent. Individuals who grew up with access to their immigrant parent and opportunities to identify with something other than White feel less conflicted about their 'mixedness'. In contrast, the individuals who grew up with only a Danish White parent struggle with their mixed identity. This paper contributes to the Critical Mixed Race Studies literature by adding parental immigrant status as a factor in multiracial racial identity processes. |
STEM Education Research
Title: “Why Do Some Stay While Others Leave Biological Science? The Role of Abstract and Concrete Career Perceptions and Plans”
Journal paper - working draft.
Authors: Mette Evelyn Bjerre, Elizabeth Stearns, Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, and Melissa Dancy.
Journal paper - working draft.
Authors: Mette Evelyn Bjerre, Elizabeth Stearns, Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, and Melissa Dancy.
Abstract:
The majority of undergraduates who aspire to a medical career major in biology, the only STEM discipline with a reverse gender gap and the largest proportions of underrepresented minority students. In order to understand biology's success with these traditionally underserved STEM students, we examine college major choices, career perceptions, and college seniors' future plans to discern differences among students who successfully major in biology and those who leave that major. Using Expectancy Value Theory and Mickelson's distinction between concrete and abstract attitudes as our lenses, we analyze interview data from a self-selected sample of North Carolina college seniors. We find that biology majors and leavers start college with different career perceptions and subjective task value differences. Findings suggest ways to increase STEM retention through better communications of links between majors and specific occupations. Lessons from biology's successes could increase persistence in other STEM disciplines, particularly for underserved groups.
The majority of undergraduates who aspire to a medical career major in biology, the only STEM discipline with a reverse gender gap and the largest proportions of underrepresented minority students. In order to understand biology's success with these traditionally underserved STEM students, we examine college major choices, career perceptions, and college seniors' future plans to discern differences among students who successfully major in biology and those who leave that major. Using Expectancy Value Theory and Mickelson's distinction between concrete and abstract attitudes as our lenses, we analyze interview data from a self-selected sample of North Carolina college seniors. We find that biology majors and leavers start college with different career perceptions and subjective task value differences. Findings suggest ways to increase STEM retention through better communications of links between majors and specific occupations. Lessons from biology's successes could increase persistence in other STEM disciplines, particularly for underserved groups.
Title: “Multiracial Students and STEM Identity: A Dual Process Approach”
Journal paper - working draft.
Authors: Mette Evelyn Bjerre
Journal paper - working draft.
Authors: Mette Evelyn Bjerre
Abstract:
The concept of developing a STEM identity can help explain why some ethno-racial minorities enter and persist in STEM college majors. However, research into the barriers to developing a STEM identity tends to focus on monoracial groups and the difference between White and non-White students. As a result, multiracial students are either assumed to be part of monoracial groups or ignored from the research entirely. This paper presents qualitative interview data on 46 multiracial college students in the North Carolina public university system. The analysis for this group of multiracial students shows that multiracial students’ identity choices influence their STEM identity. Those who identify as monoracial are more likely to major in STEM than those who identify as multiracial. Self-identified multiracial students leave STEM because they do not develop a STEM identity, whereas self-identified monoracial students leave STEM for other reasons. Based on this finding, I suggest that the ways that multiracial students self-identify can influence the development of a new social identity, in this case, a STEM identity, and therefore influence their major choice in college. This finding is important because the multiracial population is one of the youngest and fastest-growing population groups in the U.S. Multiracials will become an increasingly significant proportion of college students. In the interest of increasing minority representation in the STEM fields, we must better understand this population group. Therefore, this paper is calling for more research into multiracial students as an underrepresented group in the STEM fields.
The concept of developing a STEM identity can help explain why some ethno-racial minorities enter and persist in STEM college majors. However, research into the barriers to developing a STEM identity tends to focus on monoracial groups and the difference between White and non-White students. As a result, multiracial students are either assumed to be part of monoracial groups or ignored from the research entirely. This paper presents qualitative interview data on 46 multiracial college students in the North Carolina public university system. The analysis for this group of multiracial students shows that multiracial students’ identity choices influence their STEM identity. Those who identify as monoracial are more likely to major in STEM than those who identify as multiracial. Self-identified multiracial students leave STEM because they do not develop a STEM identity, whereas self-identified monoracial students leave STEM for other reasons. Based on this finding, I suggest that the ways that multiracial students self-identify can influence the development of a new social identity, in this case, a STEM identity, and therefore influence their major choice in college. This finding is important because the multiracial population is one of the youngest and fastest-growing population groups in the U.S. Multiracials will become an increasingly significant proportion of college students. In the interest of increasing minority representation in the STEM fields, we must better understand this population group. Therefore, this paper is calling for more research into multiracial students as an underrepresented group in the STEM fields.