Date of Award

Spring 2022

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Communication

First Advisor

David Dixon

Abstract

Identity formation acts as an important part of human development. At the same time, some difficulty occurs when a person attempts to hold two identities that seemingly contradict. For those that identify as both feminists and Christians, this dilemma creates difficulties. As these two identity camps have been on opposing ends of a variety of issues for years, some may even feel unable to claim both of these labels simultaneously. At the same time, some can hold the values of each even as they reject the identity labels. The context of higher education provides students with an environment where they can explore nuances and different belief and value systems. The four-year period of development often pushes students outside of their parents’ ways of thought. At the same time, identity foreclosed students may end up even firmer in their pre-college identities. Though they aim to provide students with similar levels of exposure to prevalent issues of the day, private Christian universities hold a specific set of values and beliefs. In the case of feminism, this topic may not be developed in students of these universities, due to the apparent contradictions between the two identities. This study seeks to uncover if Christian college students hold the identities of feminist and Christian, how language creates this dual identity, and if the Christian college environment provides roadblocks to this identity formation.

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