ABSTRACT

This book documents the lived experiences of women of color academics who have leveraged their professional positions to challenge the status quo in their scholarship, teaching, service, activism, and leadership. By presenting reflexive work from various vantage points within and outside of the academy, contributors document the cultivation of mentoring relationships, the use of administrative roles to challenge institutional leadership, and more. Through an emphasis on the various ways in which women of color have succeeded in the academy—albeit with setbacks along the way—this volume aims to change the discourse surrounding women of color academics: from a focus on trauma and mere survival to a focus on courage and thriving.

chapter 1|4 pages

Introduction

part I|62 pages

Resisting Convention

chapter 3|7 pages

What Looks Like Bravery in the Academy

Reflections of an African-American Woman Engineer

chapter 5|10 pages

“Working the Cracks” in Academia and Beyond

Cultivating “Race” and Social Justice Convergence Spaces, Networks, and Liberation Capital for Social Transformation in the Neoliberal University

chapter 7|7 pages

Un-Disciplined

A Conversation Between Two Sisters Who Left Graduate School

chapter 8|9 pages

“You're Doing What?!?”

Leaving Academia to Answer the Call

part II|48 pages

Collective Resistance

chapter 9|1 pages

Love Note

chapter 10|9 pages

La Colectiva

Peer Mentoring on the Path to Thrival

chapter 11|12 pages

Fiery Mind, Full Heart, Brave Soul

A Model for Women of Color to Thrive in Historically White Colleges and Universities

chapter 12|7 pages

Courageous Xicanas

Living Legacies of Comadrazgo in the Academy

chapter 13|9 pages

“We Got You”

What Raising Up the Next Generation of Scholar-Activists Has Taught Me

chapter 14|8 pages

On the Wings of Communal Bravery

part III|38 pages

Embodied Resistance