Terrell Strayhorn, known as the “Professor of Belonging,” delivered a lecture as part of the Fall 2025 Honors Colloquium on Nov 18. centered around the feeling of belonging.
The lecture, titled, “Who Gets to Belong? Unmasking Justice and Reimagining Education for All,” focused on the sense of belonging and how it is intrinsically linked to student success in higher education.
“[Belonging] is a feeling that starts to drive and change our mind, thoughts, powers, cognitive bandwidth,” Strayhorn said.
Strayhorn also discussed how a sense of belonging in education now must address how a sense of belonging was lacking in the past, noting that decades ago, he would not have been able to attend, teach, or speak at the University of Rhode Island as a Black man.
“While I get to be here, I know that we have a history in higher education of excluding folks: consciously and unconsciously, intentionally and unintentionally,” Strayhorn said.
In terms of other changes over time, Strayhorn acknowledged how students want to feel less wrapped around their university, and instead have their university experience be wrapped around their lives.
Educators can help students achieve this feeling by looking toward student success and learning about their students and their lives, according to Strayhorn.
“How do you then create this customized, individual, high-touch, relevant, flexible, malleable kind of experience that makes them feel like they matter, they belong, they have what they need in order to be successful here?” Strayhorn asked.
Strayhorn addressed different barriers to access, whether that be a student’s life before attending college or while they are already there.
The tools used to overcome these barriers are more commonly known as accommodations, according to Strayhorn.
“Everyone needs assistance,” Strayhorn said. “Everyone needs help. We just differ in the kind of help that we need.”
Along with barriers, Strayhorn talked about metaphorical “boxes” and how they can feel limiting to LGBTQIA2S+ students, students who come from foster homes or anyone else who has been historically and systemically oppressed.
“What we’ve needed for a long time are models that pay attention to the factors and not so much focus on the boxes,” Strayhorn said.
Educators can assure that their students feel a sense of belonging by paying attention to the language and pronouns they use, according to Strayhorn. An example would be when a student says “my professor” as opposed to “the professor.”
“Inclusive, possessive language starts to queue up,” Strayhorn said. “It reflects belonging.”
Strayhorn concluded by saying that he is fortunate to be connecting with students, building trust and making them feel like they belong.
“We can create conditions and spaces for every single student to feel a sense of belonging, not just to feel it, but to feel it in a way that transports them from the place of impossibility to possibility and great success,” Strayhorn said.
Strayhorn works as a professor of education and belonging at Virginia Union University, where he also serves as the principal investigator of the Belonging Matters Lab.
