Architects of Belonging: Black Doctoral Students in a Shifting Political Era

As anti-DEI legislation reshapes belonging in American higher education, today’s Black doctoral students may one day become the educators and administrators who shape the experiences of young adults, which creates an indirect but significant connection between doctoral education and young adults. However, research on belonging in graduate education rarely connects doctoral student experiences to other sectors of education, including K-12 and undergraduate student relationships. Through a single focus group, this qualitative study explores the experiences of five Black higher education doctoral students cultivating and sustaining belonging in the current anti-DEI climate. Grounded in Hurtado and Carter’s framework, findings from the study reveal that Black doctoral students are architects of their own belonging by forming spaces to facilitate belonging through unacknowledged labor in the absence of formal institutional supports.