M J Gast
Biographic Data
| ID | 41429 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M J Gast |
| GIVEN NAMES | M J |
| FAMILY NAME | Gast |
| SIGNATURE | GAST M J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Louisville |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8529-2078 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 76 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Intersectional Uncertainties
Following rational choice frameworks, past scholarship often points to economic calculations and uncertainties informing college‐enrollment decisions of marginalized students. I contribute by examining heterogeneous messages shaping Black high‐school students' anticipated college uncertainties. Drawing on intersectionality theory, I connect those messages to prevailing racial, gendered, and classed ideologies within the context of a racially and …
“Getting rid of systemic racism
Black, Latine, and Asian American young people living in the U.S. experienced the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racism, along with racial traumas and stresses stemming from racial violence and public debates on how to (or not) address racism. Using critical consciousness and social justice youth development frameworks, this study sought to emphasize youth of color responses to the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racism and youth-identified strate…
Giving Back”
Community-based organizations (CBOs) and schools are often key initial institutions encountered by immigrants. Yet little research compares immigrant perceptions of CBOs and schools. The authors use interviews with green card–status Filipina and undocumented Latina mothers at a nonprofit, low-income-serving CBO in San Francisco, California. The authors identify intersecting burdens, or emotional dilemmas associated with school and CBO participati…
Racial and gender disparities in faculty perceptions of discrimination, exclusion, and inequities across department and university levels
Negotiating Language Ideologies in Adolescent Bilingual Peer Mentoring
Academic Apartheid
The Bricks before Brown
Liberating Our Writing
We outline our evolution as Latina, Asian, and White women sociologists using a social justice lens while studying transitions to college among youth of color. During our graduate training and early academic careers, we felt pushed to center “mainstream” theories, which often failed to account for the power struggles and intersectional oppression our reading and empirical investigations uncovered. Guidance from mentors, peer reviewers, and senior…
Racialization of ’ESL students’ in a diverse school and multilingual Latina/o peer mentors
Past research connects pervasive anti-Latina/o stereotypes to school practices and teacher–student interactions. However, there is less work on how Latina/o students negotiate and adopt such pervasive stereotypes when interacting with their immigrant peers. Using work on racialization and Bourdieu’s (1989) concepts of misrecognition and symbolic violence, we analyze language surrounding Mexican, Caribbean, and Central American ‘ESL students’ in P…
Reconceptualizing College Knowledge
Past work and college-access programs often treat college knowledge as discrete pieces of information and focus on the amount of available college information. I use ethnographic and multiwave interview data to compare college-aspiring working- and middle-class black 9th and 11th graders across almost two years in high school along with their post-high school updates. Respondents were exposed to college-going messages but faced racial constraints…
You’re Supposed to Help Me”
How do educators reconcile the growing college-for-all norm—the notion that all students should pursue college—with the diverse needs of students in urban settings? What is the impact on Black students across social-class background? Using interviews and fieldwork with teachers, counselors, and diverse Black students in a large Californian high school, I examine college-counseling norms under a social capital framework. With high caseloads, I fin…
Making requests
Advocacy organizations have reframed immigrants as deserving, and improved their access to services and support; yet, we know little about how low-income immigrants understand organizational frames to make individual requests in public institutions and programmes. Analyzing in-depth interviews and fieldwork over multiple years, we show how Filipina/o and Latina/o immigrants become empowered to make claims through an organization's frame of low-in…
We Count What Matters
The authors introduce a college admissions simulation activity that facilitates discussions of affirmative action and racial disparities in the seemingly objective college admissions process. In this activity, students serve as mock admissions committees in small groups. On the basis of activity sheets collected from multiple courses across several institutions, the authors disclose quantitative patterns in students' applicant choices and qualita…
They Give Teachers a Hard Time
A number of studies identify racial and class differences in disciplinary actions and teacher-student interactions; however, scholars place less emphasis on how race and class intersect to shape classifications of teacher-student relations. Using findings from an ethnographic study in a high school with significant racial and class stratification, I examine how teachers and black students of varying social-class backgrounds describe teacher-stude…
We Only Speak English Here”
Past research suggests that community after-school programs (ASPs) are crucial sites for culturally relevant programming for minority and immigrant youth; yet, we know little about how ASPs address language in their programming. Using an ethnographic fieldwork approach, we examine the goals and practices of ASP workers serving immigrant youth with diverse ethnic and language backgrounds in San Francisco, California. We find that, despite the best…
Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools
Moral or civic ties? Deservingness and engagement among undocumented Latinas in non-profit organisations
As alternatives to mainstream institutions, local non-profit organisations (NPOs) are important sites for immigrant civic engagement; yet, there is little research on how immigrants negotiate the benefits of NPOs. We use ethnographic fieldwork and multiple in-depth interviews with 39 NPO staff and Latina immigrants in San Francisco, California. We offer new insights about how undocumented, low-income, Latina mothers – a group constrained by multi…
Racial Inclusion or Accommodation
In this paper, we examine how community-based organizations (CBOs) and their leaders negotiate and expand the boundaries of the communities they serve and represent. Drawing upon interviews with organizational leaders and documentary data from Asian American CBOs in the San Francisco Bay Area, we find that nearly all of the organizations in our sample engaged in cross-racial work, incorporating other racial groups into their programs, campaigns, …
You’re Supposed to Help Me”
How do educators reconcile the growing college-for-all norm—the notion that all students should pursue college—with the diverse needs of students in urban settings? What is the impact on Black students across social-class background? Using interviews and fieldwork with teachers, counselors, and diverse Black students in a large Californian high school, I examine college-counseling norms under a social capital framework. With high caseloads, I fin…
Racial Inclusion or Accommodation
In this paper, we examine how community-based organizations (CBOs) and their leaders negotiate and expand the boundaries of the communities they serve and represent. Drawing upon interviews with organizational leaders and documentary data from Asian American CBOs in the San Francisco Bay Area, we find that nearly all of the organizations in our sample engaged in cross-racial work, incorporating other racial groups into their programs, campaigns, …
Moral or civic ties? Deservingness and engagement among undocumented Latinas in non-profit organisations
As alternatives to mainstream institutions, local non-profit organisations (NPOs) are important sites for immigrant civic engagement; yet, there is little research on how immigrants negotiate the benefits of NPOs. We use ethnographic fieldwork and multiple in-depth interviews with 39 NPO staff and Latina immigrants in San Francisco, California. We offer new insights about how undocumented, low-income, Latina mothers – a group constrained by multi…
Reconceptualizing College Knowledge
Past work and college-access programs often treat college knowledge as discrete pieces of information and focus on the amount of available college information. I use ethnographic and multiwave interview data to compare college-aspiring working- and middle-class black 9th and 11th graders across almost two years in high school along with their post-high school updates. Respondents were exposed to college-going messages but faced racial constraints…
We Only Speak English Here”
Past research suggests that community after-school programs (ASPs) are crucial sites for culturally relevant programming for minority and immigrant youth; yet, we know little about how ASPs address language in their programming. Using an ethnographic fieldwork approach, we examine the goals and practices of ASP workers serving immigrant youth with diverse ethnic and language backgrounds in San Francisco, California. We find that, despite the best…
They Give Teachers a Hard Time
A number of studies identify racial and class differences in disciplinary actions and teacher-student interactions; however, scholars place less emphasis on how race and class intersect to shape classifications of teacher-student relations. Using findings from an ethnographic study in a high school with significant racial and class stratification, I examine how teachers and black students of varying social-class backgrounds describe teacher-stude…
Academic Apartheid
Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools
We Count What Matters
The authors introduce a college admissions simulation activity that facilitates discussions of affirmative action and racial disparities in the seemingly objective college admissions process. In this activity, students serve as mock admissions committees in small groups. On the basis of activity sheets collected from multiple courses across several institutions, the authors disclose quantitative patterns in students' applicant choices and qualita…
Liberating Our Writing
We outline our evolution as Latina, Asian, and White women sociologists using a social justice lens while studying transitions to college among youth of color. During our graduate training and early academic careers, we felt pushed to center “mainstream” theories, which often failed to account for the power struggles and intersectional oppression our reading and empirical investigations uncovered. Guidance from mentors, peer reviewers, and senior…
Racialization of ’ESL students’ in a diverse school and multilingual Latina/o peer mentors
Past research connects pervasive anti-Latina/o stereotypes to school practices and teacher–student interactions. However, there is less work on how Latina/o students negotiate and adopt such pervasive stereotypes when interacting with their immigrant peers. Using work on racialization and Bourdieu’s (1989) concepts of misrecognition and symbolic violence, we analyze language surrounding Mexican, Caribbean, and Central American ‘ESL students’ in P…
Racial and gender disparities in faculty perceptions of discrimination, exclusion, and inequities across department and university levels
Racial Inclusion or Accommodation
In this paper, we examine how community-based organizations (CBOs) and their leaders negotiate and expand the boundaries of the communities they serve and represent. Drawing upon interviews with organizational leaders and documentary data from Asian American CBOs in the San Francisco Bay Area, we find that nearly all of the organizations in our sample engaged in cross-racial work, incorporating other racial groups into their programs, campaigns, …
We Only Speak English Here”
Past research suggests that community after-school programs (ASPs) are crucial sites for culturally relevant programming for minority and immigrant youth; yet, we know little about how ASPs address language in their programming. Using an ethnographic fieldwork approach, we examine the goals and practices of ASP workers serving immigrant youth with diverse ethnic and language backgrounds in San Francisco, California. We find that, despite the best…
Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools
Moral or civic ties? Deservingness and engagement among undocumented Latinas in non-profit organisations
As alternatives to mainstream institutions, local non-profit organisations (NPOs) are important sites for immigrant civic engagement; yet, there is little research on how immigrants negotiate the benefits of NPOs. We use ethnographic fieldwork and multiple in-depth interviews with 39 NPO staff and Latina immigrants in San Francisco, California. We offer new insights about how undocumented, low-income, Latina mothers – a group constrained by multi…
They Give Teachers a Hard Time
A number of studies identify racial and class differences in disciplinary actions and teacher-student interactions; however, scholars place less emphasis on how race and class intersect to shape classifications of teacher-student relations. Using findings from an ethnographic study in a high school with significant racial and class stratification, I examine how teachers and black students of varying social-class backgrounds describe teacher-stude…
We Count What Matters
The authors introduce a college admissions simulation activity that facilitates discussions of affirmative action and racial disparities in the seemingly objective college admissions process. In this activity, students serve as mock admissions committees in small groups. On the basis of activity sheets collected from multiple courses across several institutions, the authors disclose quantitative patterns in students' applicant choices and qualita…
Making requests
Advocacy organizations have reframed immigrants as deserving, and improved their access to services and support; yet, we know little about how low-income immigrants understand organizational frames to make individual requests in public institutions and programmes. Analyzing in-depth interviews and fieldwork over multiple years, we show how Filipina/o and Latina/o immigrants become empowered to make claims through an organization's frame of low-in…
You’re Supposed to Help Me”
How do educators reconcile the growing college-for-all norm—the notion that all students should pursue college—with the diverse needs of students in urban settings? What is the impact on Black students across social-class background? Using interviews and fieldwork with teachers, counselors, and diverse Black students in a large Californian high school, I examine college-counseling norms under a social capital framework. With high caseloads, I fin…
Liberating Our Writing
We outline our evolution as Latina, Asian, and White women sociologists using a social justice lens while studying transitions to college among youth of color. During our graduate training and early academic careers, we felt pushed to center “mainstream” theories, which often failed to account for the power struggles and intersectional oppression our reading and empirical investigations uncovered. Guidance from mentors, peer reviewers, and senior…
Racialization of ’ESL students’ in a diverse school and multilingual Latina/o peer mentors
Past research connects pervasive anti-Latina/o stereotypes to school practices and teacher–student interactions. However, there is less work on how Latina/o students negotiate and adopt such pervasive stereotypes when interacting with their immigrant peers. Using work on racialization and Bourdieu’s (1989) concepts of misrecognition and symbolic violence, we analyze language surrounding Mexican, Caribbean, and Central American ‘ESL students’ in P…
Reconceptualizing College Knowledge
Past work and college-access programs often treat college knowledge as discrete pieces of information and focus on the amount of available college information. I use ethnographic and multiwave interview data to compare college-aspiring working- and middle-class black 9th and 11th graders across almost two years in high school along with their post-high school updates. Respondents were exposed to college-going messages but faced racial constraints…
Academic Apartheid
The Bricks before Brown
“Getting rid of systemic racism
Black, Latine, and Asian American young people living in the U.S. experienced the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racism, along with racial traumas and stresses stemming from racial violence and public debates on how to (or not) address racism. Using critical consciousness and social justice youth development frameworks, this study sought to emphasize youth of color responses to the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racism and youth-identified strate…
Giving Back”
Community-based organizations (CBOs) and schools are often key initial institutions encountered by immigrants. Yet little research compares immigrant perceptions of CBOs and schools. The authors use interviews with green card–status Filipina and undocumented Latina mothers at a nonprofit, low-income-serving CBO in San Francisco, California. The authors identify intersecting burdens, or emotional dilemmas associated with school and CBO participati…
Racial and gender disparities in faculty perceptions of discrimination, exclusion, and inequities across department and university levels
Negotiating Language Ideologies in Adolescent Bilingual Peer Mentoring
Intersectional Uncertainties
Following rational choice frameworks, past scholarship often points to economic calculations and uncertainties informing college‐enrollment decisions of marginalized students. I contribute by examining heterogeneous messages shaping Black high‐school students' anticipated college uncertainties. Drawing on intersectionality theory, I connect those messages to prevailing racial, gendered, and classed ideologies within the context of a racially and …
Sociology (15 works) · Political science (14 works) · Gender Studies (10 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Critical Race Theory in Education (9 works) · Gender Studies (7 works) · Higher Education Research Studies (7 works) · Pedagogy (6 works) · Immigration (5 works) · Law (5 works)