Education Commons^™

Making Room For Fat Student Affairs Professionals In Higher Education, Wesley Heath

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sizeism is often called the last acceptable form of prejudice in our social world. Weight discrimination has been widely documented in job searches, doctors’ offices, promotions, wage gaps, education, and even courtrooms. Despite decades of critical weight scholarship, little research has been done on fat higher education employees. Using the critical theory and the fat studies theoretical framework, this phenomenological study explores bias, prejudice, and discrimination experienced by fat student affairs professionals on college campuses. Four overarching research questions were identified and focused on the following topics: the limitations of physical space on college campuses, perceptions of available resources, stereotypes …