| This thesis is a tapestry of philosophical, political, praxis, and structural ideas that seeks understanding of an administrative phenomenon, the chief diversity officer. To provide a foundation for such an undertaking it explores narrative inquiry; colleges and universities as deliberative democratic spheres; the troubles with rigorous research; the problems administrators face when positioned within overly rational formal organizations; the social pressures to both stand out and blend in; the need to acknowledge and assess organizational cultures as engineered spaces; the stories that move us toward action in search of equality and justice; and the question of, why administrate at all?;Like a tapestry with many threads, there are multiple voices that guide us on this journey. The stories of chief diversity officers contribute experiential evidence to corroborate the philosophical and political arguments, or possibly I have the order reversed, and it is the arguments that corroborate the narratives. My own stories are embedded, as well, as I struggle with data collection, unexpected responses from informants, and the realization that life within stratified organizations is often a struggle for those in the farthest margins. I end up returning to notions of structure and action and develop a typography that might assist in addressing the hypocrisy between structure and action. I felt this assessment helped explain the complexity and discontinuity in chief diversity officers' lives.;Faced with resurging conservativism, increasing capitalist impulses, and the corporatization of higher education, I find hope in oppositional counter communal spheres and those organizational members that refuse to turn higher learning over to the logics of the for-profit business world. This dissertation explores the administrators faced with negotiating the borders between central administration and the various historically oppressed organizational members in colleges and universities and their collective struggles to make their voices heard, their curriculums known, and their pedagogies valued. This thesis suggests administration is more than a rational and directed body allowing people to accomplish tasks bigger than they might be able to accomplish on their own. Administration is a curriculum that produces its own knowledge about higher education, the possibilities for college and universities to enact education for public democracy, and the types of initiatives that will move us toward what I have termed deep equity and critical multiculturalism. |
