Love and Liminality: Understanding College as a Liminal Phase in regards to Romantic Love and Courtship

Twelve students at the University of Texas at Austin have been interviewed in an attempt to understand romantic love and courtship on the college campus. Romantic love and courtship on UT campus are best understood through the conceptualization of college as a liminal period. Students are expressing liminality in their ambiguous and unstructured behaviors and perceptions of courtship, and their rendition of romantic love as irreconcilable on the college campus. Romantic love is thus conceptualized as the ‘structured result’ of ‘the activity which has no structure’ that is college courtship. It is through this activity with no structure that students learn and perpetuate their ideal romantic love that they will seek out after the liminal period, that ultimately structures them into marriage and family units.