Wyomissing resident, Hamilton College senior Hannah Petersen co-authors paper in academic journal

Petersen is a sociology major at Hamilton

Clinton, NY (11/23/2021) — While many college undergraduates have the opportunity to conduct research, few see their work published in an academic journal. But this is exactly what Wyomissing resident and Hamilton College senior Hannah Petersen accomplished as a co-author of the article "Schools as racialized organizations in policy and practice," published last month in the international, peer-reviewed Sociology Compass. Petersen is a sociology major at Hamilton.

The paper, which explains the students' research with lead author Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology Mahala Stewart, focuses on inequalities in modern schooling as explained by and attributed to racialized institutions. "We apply the components of this racial theory to offer a new framework for examining racial inequalities in U.S. K-12 schools," the authors explain in the paper's abstract.

Petersen and her co-author's work originated from Stewart's Inequalities in Schooling course, after which the pair pursued further research via an independent study last spring. It was during this period that the paper was completed and submitted. "Although I did work with both of them on research over the winter, this paper was written based on their exceptional work in my class," said Stewart, adding that she hopes to help more students achieve publication in the future.

"We were on our own a little bit during the week and would meet weekly to discuss our ideas and see how they were connecting," Petersen said. "Professor Stewart used those citations to create the skeleton of the paper; we were invited to edit and add different sections as needed."

On their research process, Petersen said they started by constructing a "mini syllabus" that focused on a particular area of interest to be explored in greater detail through academic articles. These articles were logged in an annotated bibliography, whose entries included information such as important findings and relevance to the broader project.

For the paper itself, the authors emphasized the importance of sociologist Victor Ray's idea of racialized organizations, of which there are four main tenets: the enhancement or diminishment of agency of racial groups, the legitimation of unequal distribution of resources, whiteness as a credential, and the decoupling of race from existing inequalities. With these concepts in mind, the researchers examined three case studies, attempting to show how schools are not race-neutral.

"In particular, we highlight how these tenets surface through schools' policies (school rules around discipline, language, and tracking) and practices (interactions between students, teachers and staff)," the authors write.

Prior to this project, neither student had been published in an academic journal, but agreed on its value going forward. Petersen said: "It's such a great example of how incredible experiences at Hamilton can be our professors are accessible to us and can see our interests in a way that allows us to collaborate with them."

Hannah Petersen is a graduate of The King's Academy

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