Examining the Acculturation Process of Transfer Students of Campus using Cultural Anthropology: A Practice and Interpretive Theory approach

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In this paper, I use practice theory as a means to explore the assimilation, or acculturation, process of undergraduate community college transfer students at a mid-sized, public four-year institution known as Southern University.  Specifically, I utilize practice theory and interpretative anthropological concepts, including the development of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and Turner’s ritual terminology to describe the transition process of community college transfer students entering Southern University.

            I use qualitative data obtained from interviews with five undergraduate community college transfer students enrolled in their first year at Southern University during the 2014-2015 academic year.  Using the testimony provided from these interviews, I examine what happens when transfer students struggle to both accept and to become accepted into, using Bourdieu’s terminology, the field, or the space, of the receiving institution.  Additionally, I explore the idea that a college campus can be thought of as a space in which one makes meaning in relation to one’s identity.

            In this paper, I also consider Victor Turner’s terms relating to ritual analysis, including liminality and marginality, and uncover similarities between these concepts and the community college transfer student assimilation period to campus.  While transfer students do not necessary undergo a ritual as a group (meaning the transfer student population in its entirety) after coming to a new school, interview data reveals that there are instances in which these students experience some form of liminality.  Lastly, I raise questions for discussion for institutional agents (including administrators, faculty, staff, students, and others) about the development and assimilation process for community college transfer students on four-year campuses.

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