Tabatha Jones Jolivet
Ph.D. Student

Tabatha's research interests can be summarized under the category of Critical and Sociocultural Issues in Postsecondary Education.

Tabatha Jones Jolivet is a doctoral student in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University, where she recently completed coursework toward a PhD in Education with a concentration in the subfield of higher education. Her research interests can be summarized under the category of Critical and Sociocultural Issues in Postsecondary Education, specifically: women's issues, college student access, educational equity, and social stratification in postsecondary education. She is also interested in faculty diversity and the organizational implications of diversity in higher education. Anchoring her position as an emerging scholar are critical theoretical perspectives—namely intersectionality as an approach to understanding the confluence of race, gender, and class in contemporary education issues; Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a commitment to foregrounding race and critiquing racism in its systemic forms while simultaneously addressing other forms of oppression; and Womanist perspectives, which confront the interstructured nature of oppression and make visible the modes of liberation and resistance at work in women’s lives. Lastly, she takes into account forms of cultural logic—resources of social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1977 & 1973) that function to stratify, reproduce, and hierarchize postsecondary education outcomes.

She is a Research Associate for a national study, The Project on the Future of the Academic Profession (Principal Authors: Drs. Jack Schuster and Marty Finkelstein) and a research team member examining work-life issues for women faculty (Principal Investigator, Dr. Margaret Weber). She is also revising a manuscript that summarizes findings from a quantitative research project on college student engagement in high-impact learning activities and the ways in which cultural and social capital resources prescribe for some elite trajectories in college life.

In her applied work, she serves as an Associate Dean of Student Affairs at Pepperdine University (Seaver College), where she earned a Bachelor of Arts (Humanities) and a Master’s degree (Religious Studies). There, she teaches part-time, co-chairs the University Diversity Council, and chairs the Access and Equity Sub-committee of the Seaver College Diversity Council. Her professional life is grounded in community work and a social justice agenda that promotes solidarity with local communities through education. She tutors children from low-income families at a local Title I elementary school on a weekly basis; is an active member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of Black Women in Higher Education (ABWHE) and serves on the planning committee for the 2010 national conference; and co-leads the women’s ministry at her local church. Lastly, she routinely lectures on postsecondary education topics, and recently delivered the keynote address for the Fulfillment Fund’s Destination College 13 Conference, a community-based educational program for low-income high school students in the Los Angeles area.

Email: tabatha.jones@cgu.edu