Associate Director Steve Mobley Praised for Doctoral Dissertation

Georgetown McDonough’s Steve D. Mobley, Jr. has been met with extraordinary reception in the academic community for his recently published doctoral dissertation. The National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) awarded Mobley with its 2016 Outstanding Dissertation Award, which recognizes substantial contributions to the literature and field of higher education. He also garnered a 2016 Dissertation of the Year Award from the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education (AABHE).

While there have been an array of studies that depict how low-income black students navigate elite and predominately white institutions, empirical research that underscores how these students navigate elite historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) is non-existent. The dissertation, titled “Difference Amongst Your Own: The Lived Experiences of Low-Income African-American Students and Their Encounters with Class within Elite Historically Black College (HBCU) Environments,” directly grapples with the impact that social class differences have on the undergraduate experiences of low-income African-American students who attend elite HBCUs. The study shifts scholarly discourses on HBCUs by taking a deliberate look into how black intra-racial socioeconomic differences impact their institutional cultures and student experiences. Ultimately, Mobley argues that neither HBCUs nor their students are a monolithic group.

Mobley recently received his Ph.D. in educational policy and leadership with a concentration in higher education from the University of Maryland-College Park in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education. He currently serves as associate director of undergraduate programs at McDonough.