摘要：One of the key transformations South Africa n universities have undergone in the past two decades is the in- crease of racial and eth nic diversity of their student bodies and academic staff. In this study, we seek to con- tribute to a better understanding of these tra nsformation processes by presenting students' narratives of how they experience the interracial integration of student residences. We first address the potential groupist and essential underpinnings of ethno-racial identification s by situating our categories of analysis in a social-con- structivist framework, underlining the situational and processual character of identifying and establishing "groupness," while simultaneously considering the obdurate quality habitualized ways of identifying may generate. We then present an overview of our sensitizi ng themes as they are di scussed i n the literatu re on race and ethnicity with a focus on South Africa and student experiences. Thirdly, the article introduces the reader to the institutional context of the case study, namely, the campu s of the University of the Free State and its student residences. Based on focus group discussions and thematic analyses, we present our findings in the form of the cultural themes that are central to the students' narrations of their experiences. These themes include the salience of racial and eth nic identifications, tolerant distance, conf usion, fairness, neutrality, eth nolinguistic recognition, regional public arenas, rural-urban divides, as well as socio-economic divides.
关键词：Race; Ethnicity; Transformation; Nar rative Studie s; Groups; Identity Focus Groups
