This scholarly essay interrogates the seemingly necessary engagement of normative and essentialist characterizations of identity in the historical study of race in U.S. higher education. The author’s study of the experiences of Black collegians in private, liberal arts colleges in the Midwestern Great Lakes region between 1945 and 1965 grounds this discussion. Although engaging racial essentialism is necessary, the author presents alternative treatments of historicizing race to illustrate the benefits of a critical-realist approach to producing a synthetic cultural educational history.

中文翻译：

---

种族和史学：推进批判现实主义方法。

这篇学术论文质疑了美国高等教育种族历史研究中对身份的规范性和本质主义特征的看似必要的参与。作者对 1945 年至 1965 年中西部五大湖地区私立文理学院黑人大学生的经历进行了研究，以此作为讨论的基础。尽管参与种族本质主义是必要的，但作者提出了将种族历史化的替代处理方法，以说明批判现实主义方法对制作综合文化教育史的好处。