This two-article dissertation explores and exploits the heterogeneity of the social world that becomes visible at times of crisis--in this case, the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic created a portal to study the dynamics of race and capitalism. In this dissertation, I conduct critical analyses of systems of oppression at the institutional level in article one and at the structural level in article two. In the first article, using critical qualitative research, particularly critical discourse analysis, I interrogate the ideological work of the rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine when the University of Iowa communicated its public good purpose at a time of crisis. I find that the University of Iowa communicated its scientific and medical research to advance a vision of the world where the COVID-19 crisis will be overcome by science, facilitated by professionals trained at the school, and the knowledge delivered from the university to the outside world. I critique the ideological work of science and technology rhetoric and offer implications toward an engaged practice of world-making. In the second article, I employ situational analysis to understand how the University of Iowa contains the evolving situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and how modes of containment racialize social relations on the campus. I find that as the University of Iowa attempted to keep the campus community healthy, maintain its educational programs, and advance racial justice, it sought to contain the virus and opposing perspectives. Containment of the virus overlaps with an entangled process of racialization through cultural signification of what is healthy and what matters and structural reproduction through institutionalized racism. I discuss how these processes of containment and racialization shape who can belong at the university and offer implications for the political potentiality of belonging in higher education research and practice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]