DR. KAT J. STEPHENS-PEACE

Courses Taught

• Contemporary American Higher Education
• Student Development Theory

As a scholar and researcher of higher education and student affairs, Dr. Stephens-Peace works to gain clarity on graduate student experiences, disability culture in higher education institutions, and the needs of Black immigrant and international students. Her research focuses on graduate students, and has a thread of equity and inclusion throughout the various areas, projects, and populations she engages with. Her dissertation examines the experiences of graduate students with disabilities (neurodivergent conditions like ADHD, Autism, OCD, Dyslexia, etc.) at the nexus of racialized, gendered, experiences within (and outside of disability culture). Dr. Stephens-Peace is a critical qualitative scholar with experience using critical disability scholarship and arts based research methodologies, including poetic inquiry. 

Education

Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst (Higher Education), Ed.M., Teachers College, Columbia University (Higher and Postsecondary Education), B.A., Sarah Lawrence College (Africana Literature, Ed Policy, Sociology of Education), Borough of Manhattan Community College (Writing & Literature, Creative Writing)

Research Interests

Neurodivergent graduate students; graduate student socialization; Immigrant and International student experiences and racial/ethnic identity formation; returners to the Academy

Methodological Interests

Critical Qualitative, Accessibility-minded, Alternative & Indigenous methods, Arts-Based Methods

Publications

Google Scholar