Abstract
This applied dissertation examines the erosion of institutional supports for mattering in higher education and its effects on students with minoritized identities amid increasing constraints on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Its purpose is to investigate how institutions can sustain student mattering and wellbeing regardless of geographic location or political vulnerability by identifying practices that can be enacted through curriculum that centers community connection. Drawing on Mattering Theory and critical, participatory pedagogies, the dissertation synthesizes scholarship on the civic purposes of higher education, the impacts of political constraints, and practices that position community connection as a mechanism through which recognition and contribution are enacted and sustained, to identify design principles for cultivating student mattering. Particular attention is given to how collaboration and engagement with local community contexts support academic engagement, connectedness, and wellbeing. Based on this analysis, the applied dissertation introduces the Participatory, Place-Based Inquiry (PPI) Framework, an adaptable set of recommendations and tools that guide educators, students, and community partners in co-creating learning experiences rooted in local history and community knowledge. This dissertation offers a practical, theoretically grounded model for sustaining student mattering in diverse and increasingly politically constrained higher education contexts.