Mark Webb

Grant Type

Dissertation Fieldwork Grant

Institutional Affiliation

New York, Graduate Center, City U. of

Grant number

Gr. 9360

Approve Date

October 5, 2016

Project Title

Webb, Mark, City U. of New York, Graduate Center, New York, NY - To aid research on 'Crisis on Campus: Student Debt, Risk and the Financialization of Young Futures,' supervised by Dr. Leith Mullings

MARK WEBB, then a graduate student at City University of New York, Graduate Center, New York, New York, received a grant in October 2016 to aid research on ‘Crisis on Campus: Student Debt, Risk and the Financialization of Young Futures,’ supervised by Dr. Leith Mullings. Seeking insight into the kinds of new financial subjectivies that emerge within a growing student debt crisis, data was collected during 12 months of fieldwork at New York University. Using participant observation and semi-structured interviews, the language, data was gathered on the action, and affect of white, middle-class student debtors of both genders in order to examine the ways they embodied, expressed, or elided financial risk. Based upon this data, this study concludes that student loan repayment is a moment of dispossession through financial expropriation that has meaningful impact on how students experience their college education and early years after graduation.