3.1 Identities

Personal identities are individual traits that make up who you are, including your hobbies, interests, experiences, and personal choices. Many personal identities are things that you get to choose and that you are able to shape for yourself. 

Social identities are group identities. Beyond our personal identities, we understand ourselves and others as belonging to social groups. 

Membership in social identity groups (e.g. Religion, Ethnicity, Gender) are shaped in shared histories and experiences. They are further influenced by external forces such as legal decisions and historical factors and day-to-day interactions. Social identities are an important intersectional component of personal identities. 

To engage further with the complexity of identity:

• Read this article by Pamela E. Barnett: Unpacking Teachers' Invisible Knapsacks: Social Identity and Privilege in Higher Education. Links to an external site. The article highlights how some aspects of identity, such as gender, age, and others, carry specific social privileges that come into play in spaces of higher education.
• Read this book chapter by Dr. Beverly Tatum: The complexity of identity: Who am I? (Links to an external site.), where Dr. Tatum discusses how being a member of a dominant social group (i.e. white, heterosexual, male, etc.) is taken for granted, while less dominant dimensions of identity tend to feel more noticeable.