ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to center tenured Black womyn associate professors’ perspectives on advancing to the full professorship and the roles of mentoring, academic administration, and institutional initiatives in supporting or thwarting their advancement opportunities. Authors assert how intersecting social identities, such as race and gender, and interlocking systems of oppression, such as racism and sexism, influence aspirational development and support from institutional agents and mentors. Using critical race feminism, this critical qualitative inquiry centers the experiences of three Black womyn in an effort to create more equitable policies and practices. Understanding the advancement of Black womyn to the full professorship is not only critical to representational diversity but also provides opportunities for bringing diverse and nuanced ontological and epistemological perspectives to higher-level institutional governance.
