Keys to the house: Structure, agency, and the symbolic labor of black women custodians on a college campus in the deep south

Author

• Lisa Gooden-HunleyFollow

Advisor

Hagerman, Margaret

Committee Member

Crabtree, Arialle

Committee Member

Evans, Louwanda

Committee Member

Johnson, Kecia

Committee Member

Vancil-Leap, Ashley

Date of Degree

8-12-2026

Original embargo terms

Embargo 2 years

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Sociology

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Sociology

Abstract

Racialized employment patterns are evident across American higher education. Data show that Black people tend to be concentrated in low-level staff occupations, while White people have higher representation in upper-level faculty and administrator roles. Existing literature about Black women working at historically white colleges shows that they experience racialized and gendered challenges that impact them professionally. However, much of that literature focuses on faculty, administrators, and professional staff. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of Black women working as custodians on a college campus in the American South. The central research question was: how do Black women custodians make sense of their social position on a historically white college campus in the deep South? Drawing on the qualitative research methods of phenomenology and Black feminist thought, I conducted 30 semi-structured interviews and periods of participant observation. Study findings show that the custodians engage in forms of hidden labor to interpret, perform, and legitimate their position. This hidden labor, evident in their narratives, is used to explain their sense of access, value, and belonging within the campus community. I introduce the concept of symbolic labor to extend Pierre Bourdieu’s work on symbolic power. Symbolic labor has multiple dimensions that paradoxically construct agency among the custodians and reproduce the campus’s seemingly natural institutional labor order.

Recommended Citation

Gooden-Hunley, Lisa, "Keys to the house: Structure, agency, and the symbolic labor of black women custodians on a college campus in the deep south" (2026). Theses and Dissertations. 7082.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/7082