HPSE doctoral students Francheska Jimenez and Ying Tong are recipients of the Provost Dissertation Research Award
Francheska Jimenez
For her dissertation, "Visualizing Belonging: Black LGBTQ+ Students’ Use of Queer Cultural Capital at HBCUs Through Photovoice", Francheska will investigate how Black LGBTQ+ students at HBCUs visually document and narrate their experiences of utilizing queer cultural capital to develop intersectional identity affirmation and sense of belonging. The study shifts from deficit-based approaches to an asset-based framework that centers student agency, examining how students navigate, resist, and transform institutional spaces while building supportive communities. Employing photovoice as the primary visual methodology, this qualitative study will engage the students throughout a photo-taking period focused on spaces of belonging, navigating institutional structures, and intersectional identity experiences.
Overall, Francheska's research interests include intersectional identity development among Queer students of color, sense of belonging, access for minoritized students, and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). She is currently a Doctoral Research Fellow for TC’s Center for Technology & School Change, working on the evaluation of a first-year student learning community study at an urban Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Additionally, Francheska has a M.A. in Higher Education Administration and B.A. in English from Stony Brook University. She has a culmination of professional experience within higher education, K-12 education, and non-profit work.
Overall, Francheska's research interests include intersectional identity development among Queer students of color, sense of belonging, access for minoritized students, and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). She is currently a Doctoral Research Fellow for TC’s Center for Technology & School Change, working on the evaluation of a first-year student learning community study at an urban Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Additionally, Francheska has a M.A. in Higher Education Administration and B.A. in English from Stony Brook University. She has a culmination of professional experience within higher education, K-12 education, and non-profit work.
Ying Tong
I am Ying (pronouns: she/her/hers), a PhD candidate in the Higher and Postsecondary Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. My research centers on faculty work and professional development, specifically the experiences of early-career scholars navigating entry into new disciplinary and institutional communities in U.S. higher education. I am particularly drawn to the interior, interpretive dimensions of that experience—not just what faculty members encounter as facts, but how they make sense of it from within, and how that understanding may shape their work in U.S. institutions. My dissertation focuses on early-career international faculty at R1 and R2 universities, examining how these scholars read and respond to the norms embedded in their new environments, what they may carry forward from their prior academic and cultural formation, and what can emerge when the two meet. Looking ahead, I hope to extend this inquiry across institutional types and further back into the doctoral pipeline, tracing how learning and socialization during graduate school shape how—and who—scholars become as faculty. Ultimately, I aim to produce work that informs more thoughtful policies and programs supporting international and early-career scholars' intellectual and professional growth in higher education.