Since 1976, increased attention has been paid to the diminishing numbers of Black males in higher education, and rightly so: the total numerical enrollments of Black female undergraduates has outstripped their male counterparts by a factor of nearly 2 to 1. Since intervention, however, the enrollment growth rate among Black males (60 per cent) exceeded that of Black females (40 per cent) (NCES, 2008). Needless to say, this good news was welcomed by many. However, as Cole & Guy-Sheftall (2003) have pointed out, it may be misguided to assume that improving the status of black men will single-handedly solve all the complex problems facing African American communities. Are we indirectly neglecting Black females? And what of their future? The purpose of "Black Female Undergraduates on Campus" is to identify both successes and challenges faced by Black female students accessing and matriculating through institutions of higher education. In illuminating the interactive complexities between persons and place, this volume is aimed toward garnering an understanding of the educational trajectories and experiences of Black females, independent of and in comparison to their peers. Special attention is paid to women pursuing careers in the high demand fields of teacher education and STEM.

More than identity politics, intersectionality regards the inability of institutional structures to remedy discrimination because of the intersection between social dynamics which are often discretely conceived (Crenshaw & Dill, 2009). For a set of Black women workers in the manufacturing context, the court found that they were not discriminated against on the basis of their race, because Black male workers were hired for manufacturing positions. Those Black women were not discriminated against because of their gender, because there were White women hired for the front office. Those Black women workers were caught at the intersections of race and gender discrimination laws and left their employment without an effective remedy (Crenshaw, 1989). This intersection metaphor is worth examining in the higher education context as we consider that the majority of students on most U.S. campuses are women (Allen, Dean, & Bracken, 2008), and an increasing number of these women are not White; yet, most campuses have support services targeted at African American and/or multicultural student affairs and women's services which are generally targeted at White women. This volume will focus on the subpopulation of Black female college students, examining institutional and non-institutional supports for their persistence to the undergraduate degree.

Despite comprising the largest minority in rural settings, the literature to date largely subsumes African American rural students into a broader set of Black and African American students, with a primarily urban focus. This volume focuses on the higher education pathways of rural African American students and highlights their experiences in US colleges and universities. Addressing the fact that rural students have higher high school graduation rates than their urban peers but are less likely to take paths towards higher education, the authors identify research needs, areas of concerns, and strategies to encourage and sustain greater postsecondary participation among African Americans from rural settings. Contributors to the volume address the meaning of race and place, cultural capital, gender dynamics, gifted education, college choice, teacher and education leader preparation, campus programming and the role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, with specific reference to African American rural students, to pin down a clear picture of the barriers and drivers of their higher education journeys.