Geographies of the Student Debt Crisis
The session recording will be archived on the site until June 25th, 2023
This session was streamed but not recorded
Date: 3/24/2023
Time: 8:30 AM - 9:50 AM
Room: Governors Square 11, Sheraton, Concourse Level
Type: Panel, Hybrid session with both in-person and virtual presenters
Theme: Toward More Just Geographies
Curated Track:
Sponsor Group(s):
Critical Geographies of Education Specialty Group, Geography Education Specialty Group
Organizer(s):
Dylan M. Harris Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Chair(s):
Rae Baker Education and Community Action Research Program- School of Education, University of Cincinnati
Description:
Call for Panelists
American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, March 23-27, 2023 (Denver, CO)
Panel Session Title: Geographies of the Student Debt Crisis
Organizers:
Dylan M. Harris* & Rae Baker**
*Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
**Education and Community Action Research Program- School of Education, University of Cincinnati
Many students have mortgaged their futures to attend college, and only a percentage of those actually graduate with a degree, only to enter an economy with historic rates of wage stagnation and unstable employment. Debt has always been used as a mechanism by the powerful to dispossess others, and the student debt crisis puts this historical trend into stark perspective as millions of students in the U.S. hold trillions of dollars in debt (Graeber, 2011). This number only grows when we look at student debt globally.
In the U.S., Black borrowers continue to owe 95% of the student debt principal up to two decades after initially borrowing; and, Black families are systematically disadvantaged by student debt in that this population is more likely to need to borrow and often needs to borrow larger sums of money to access higher education to begin with (Sullivan et al., 2019). Despite addressing student debt as a racial justice issue and promises to cancel all student debt, the Biden administration has only succeeded in offering upwards of $20k in debt cancellation, though only $10k for most. And, while these lacking offers languish in the legal system ahead of a end-of-the-year repayment start date, students continue to agonize about whether they will be able to pay their debts. Meanwhile, the looming student debt crisis twins with other crises - climate change, a lingering pandemic, and spiraling costs of living and housing (un)affordability, to name only a few - to create a context in which students, and those with debt, feel hopeless.
There is, of course, an uneven geography to student debt. States like Colorado, one of the wealthiest states in the U.S., holds a disproportionately high student debt burden, which is likely the result of poor federal and state funding for higher education, whereas other states - poorer states - have less of a debt burden. Why? In Canada, calls for student debt relief are quashed by messaging about benefiting from comparatively low(er) tuition rates than in the U.S. and that they should make do. Why? Black students are more likely to graduate with higher amounts of debt than their white peers. After graduation, Black and brown students are more likely to miss payments, triggering predatory responses from loan servicers like garnishing wages. Why? Some of us are lured towards debt forgiveness through a 10-year sentence of state-sanctioned public service, after which time we may or may not have our debt forgiven. Why? Many students choose majors in order to get a decent job, to pay back their debts, which is invariably restructuring university systems in service to already-destructive neoliberal trends in higher education.
Enough is enough. As educators, we are implicated in this broken system, many of us struggling with debts ourselves. Many of our livelihoods are sustained through exploitative debt relations, especially as tuition creeps up year after year while public funding dwindles. While there are organizations dedicated to student debt activism - like the Debt Collective - there are few institutions dedicated to studying the student debt crisis (Harris, 2022). Given the unevenness of student debt across the country, across genders and races and family configurations, geographers are well-suited to study the debt crisis, providing key empirical evidence to help guide activism, and, ideally, create some room to breathe for our students.
In this session, we hope to begin conversations to answer some of the questions mentioned above. We are eager to hear about how geographers can study the student debt crisis, and can create spaces for solidarity for those of us who are deeply impacted by it, either as debtors or as educators concerned with the aftermath of decades of defunded higher education. We are seeking panelists who can speak to these issues from a variety of perspectives, and we aim to cover topics similar to - but not limited to - the following:
Regions of student debt – Why is it worse or better in some states or regions compared to others? Why is student debt so bad in the U.S.? How are other countries impacted by student debt?
Student debt as racial injustice – What can understanding debt within racial capitalism teach us about the affordability and racial crisis of higher education? In what ways does student debt specifically further disenfranchise BIPOC students and families?
The habitus of student debt – How does debt impact our daily lived experiences and material relations to housing, food, and accessing the necessities of life? What is the impact of debt on our bodies and our mental health?
Political ecologies of student debt – What are the socioecological consequences of student debt? How does student debt factor into a larger financial portfolio of fossil fuel and weapons investments?
Financial geographies of student debt – What financial policies - tax laws, debt financing, etc. - enable the student debt crisis? How might a critical understanding of the financial geographies of student debt shine light on the persistence of the crisis?
Critical imaginaries of student debt – What futures - for students and for educators - are being enabled or disabled by a future constrained by threats of debt?
Please submit a statement of interest of ~150-words to Dylan M. Harris (dharri14@uccs.edu) and Rae Baker (baker3rl@ucmail.uc.edu) by November 1st, 2022. We envision this session as having both in-person and virtual options for conversation.
References
Graeber D (2011) Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Brooklyn: Melville House.
Harris, D. (2022) Intervention—“Geographies of Student Debt: A Call for Research and Action.” Antipode Online. https://antipodeonline.org/2022/07/25/geographies-of-student-debt/.
Sullivan, L., Meschede, T., Shapiro, T, and Escobar, F. (2019) Stalling Dreams: How Student Debt is Disrupting Life Chances and Widening the Racial Wealth Gap. The Institute on Assets and Social Policy, Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.
Presentations (if applicable) and Session Agenda:
American Association of Geographers |
Geographies of the Student Debt Crisis |
Non-Presenting Participants
Role | Participant |
Introduction | Dylan M. Harris |
Discussant | Rae Baker Education and Community Action Research Program- School of Education, University of Cincinnati |
Panelist | Britain Hopkins Wellesley College |
Panelist | Galen Murton James Madison University |
Panelist | Guillaume Proulx Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue |
Panelist | E. Alkim Karaagac Queen's University |
Panelist | Denise Goerisch Grand Valley State University |
Panelist | John H. McKendrick Glasgow Caledonian University, |
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Geographies of the Student Debt Crisis
Description
Type: Panel, Hybrid session with both in-person and virtual presenters
Date: 3/24/2023
Time: 8:30 AM - 9:50 AM
Room: Governors Square 11, Sheraton, Concourse Level
Contact the Primary Organizer
Dylan M. Harris Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
dharri14@uccs.edu