ABSTRACT

While there has been an increase of Black women faculty in higher education institutions, the academy writ large continues to exploit, discriminate, and uphold institutionalized gendered racism through its policies and practices. Black women have navigated, negotiated, and learned how to thrive from their respective standpoints and epistemologies, traversing the academy in ways that counter typical narratives of success and advancement. This edited volume bridges together foundational and contemporary intergenerational, interdisciplinary voices to elucidate Black feminist epistemologies and praxis. Chapter authors highlight relevant research, methodologies, and theoretical or conceptual frameworks; share experiences as doctoral students, current faculty, and academic administrators; and offer lessons learned and strategies to influence systemic and institutional change for and with Black women.

part Section I|44 pages

Historical Overview

chapter 3|11 pages

Reimagining Black Feminist Epistemology and Praxis

Reflecting on the Contemporary and Evolving Conceptual Framework of One Black Faculty Woman's Academic Life

chapter 4|13 pages

Maids of Academe in Historically White Institutions

Revisited Against the Backdrop of “Black Lives Matter”

chapter 5|6 pages

The Black Woman is God

Cultivating the Power of a Disruptive Presence

part Section II|48 pages

Utility of Black Feminist Epistemologies, Research, and Praxis

chapter 10|7 pages

Spirit Murder

Black Women's Realities in the Academy

chapter 11|13 pages

Sista Circles with SistUH Scholars

Socializing Black Women Doctoral Students

part Section III|58 pages

Black Feminist Praxis Enacted

chapter 12|8 pages

#BlackInTheIvory

Utilizing Twitter to Explore Black Womxn's Experiences in the Academy

chapter 13|17 pages

Repurposing My Status as an Outsider Within

A Black Feminist Scholar-Pracademic's Journey to Becoming an Invested Indifferent

chapter 14|11 pages

Navigating a Womanist Caring Framework

Centering Womanist Geographies within Social Foundations for Black Academic Survival

chapter 15|6 pages

Black Feminist Thought from Theory to Practice

“This is MY LIFE”

part Section IV|36 pages

Canary in the Coal Mine

chapter 18|12 pages

Black Women in Academic Leadership

Reflections of One Department Chair's Journey in Engineering

chapter 19|10 pages

In Conversation

Engaging (with) the Narratives of Two Black Women Full Professor Leaders

chapter |7 pages

Enact, Discard, and Transform

Black Women's Agentic Epistemology