Experiences with diversity and inclusion policies within the physical spaces of Erasmus University’s campus

This thesis focuses on the experiences of students of color with diversity and inclusion policies within the physical spaces of Erasmus University’s campus. Drawing on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Sara Ahmed’s concept of non-performative diversity, this study explores how diversity and inclusion policies often function as a marketing strategy that maintain rather than disrupt existing power structures. The campus, conceptualized as a white space, embodies an institutional culture that privileges whiteness, creating the image of a white universal norm. Students of color are then rendered as ‘bodies out of place,’ seen as a diversity problem that needs to be ‘solved.’ Through interviews with students of color from Erasmus University, this thesis argues that they are positioned as the embodiment of diversity, placed within a specific box to meet the university’s diversity agenda. By focusing on ‘difference’ as a means to celebrate diversity, the university effectively maintains exclusionary practices, as it does not challenge white normative standards. To explore these concepts, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine students of color from Erasmus University. The interviews were interpreted using a thematic analysis. The findings show how students of color are burdened with the responsibility to address conversations of race and racism, all while navigating spaces that remain deeply racialized. The students also reported that diversity and inclusion policies are superficial and exclusionary, often centered around gender diversity while neglecting an intersectional perspective that recognizes the material realities of race and other identities.