By Brooke Larsen Photo by Mei-Ling Shaw Williams

Amanda Mollet joined the University of Iowa College of Education this fall as a Visiting Professor in Higher Education and Student Affairs. 

Mollet earned her doctorate from the UI Department of Educational Policy and Leadership Studies in the Higher Education and Student Affairs Program. Her research centers on traditionally and historically minoritized college students by examining questions of their development, experiences, and outcomes in higher education. Rooted in critical and constructivist paradigms, she implemented a both/and approach with her research by also examining the contexts of power and inequality that contribute to and influence students’ ecological environments with an emphasis towards facilitating systemic transformation. Much of her present research exists at the intersections of students’ sexual identity (e.g., asexual, bisexual, lesbian, gay) development and campus influences. 

Mollet says her scholarship amplifies voices and perspectives of students who are historically and systematically silenced in higher education. 

“My research on asexual college students has helped students to learn about their identities and engage in meaning making about navigating higher education as an asexual student.” 

Mollet says she is excited to work with the new HESA Hawkeye Alumni Day program to increase alumni engagement with the current HESA community while creating. 

“I envision my work with students as helping them critically engage theoretical foundations of student learning and development for applications in students’ scholarship and service to higher education,” Mollet says.