Chase Catalano

D. Chase J. Catalano is an associate professor of Higher Education and the coordinator of the Ph.D. Program. He became an assistant professor at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2019 after serving four years as an assistant professor at Western Illinois University in the College Student Personnel Program. Prior to his faculty roles, Chase worked in student affairs at an array of institutions in functional areas such as fraternity and sorority life, residence life, and admissions. His final student affairs role was serving for five years as the director of the LGBT Resource Center at Syracuse University.  

Chase’s research explores power dynamics within, and liberatory possibilities for, higher education. His projects and publications focus on pedagogical approaches (learning and teaching), LGBTQ+ social justice educational interventions (e.g., Safe Zones/Safe Space trainings), trans and queer center(ed) diversity workers, qualitative methods, and curricular approaches to higher education graduate preparation programs. He has published articles in journals such as College Student Affairs Journal, Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, Equity & Excellence in Education, Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education, Journal of Student Affairs Research & Practice, Journal of Women & Gender in Higher Education, International Journal in Qualitative Studies in Education, The Review of Higher Education, and TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. He is a co-editor of the fourth edition of Readings for Diversity and Social Justice (Routledge) and the forthcoming 5th edition. He is also co-editor of Envisioning a Critical and Liberatory Approach to Trans and Queer Center(ed) Diversity Work (Peter Lange, 2025) and Advising and Supporting in Student Affairs (Charles C. Thomas Publisher, 2021). 

Chase is a fellow for the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement (2025-2026). He received a Spencer Foundation Conference Grant (summer 2023) to bring together practitioners and scholars to think with each other about how to engage in racial justice and anti-racism work in LGBTQ+ Centers. He was on the Project Team for a 2024 National Endowment of the Humanities summer institute on the history of higher education. Chase was an ACPA Emerging Scholar (class of 2018) and serves as the chair of the Outstanding Book Award Committee for the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE).