Negotiations of Women’s Black and Activist Identity Through Dress on the College Campus, 2013–2019

2020 ◽  
pp. 0887302X2096880
Author(s):  
Dyese L. Matthews ◽  
Kelly L. Reddy-Best

Black people, especially Black women, have used dress to reject racism and discrimination and as a means for negotiating their Black and activist identities. Building on past work, we examine how Black women use dress as an embodied practice to negotiate both their Black and activist identities. We focus on a particular space and time: campus life at predominantly White institutions during the Black Lives Matter movement era from 2013 to 2019.To achieve this purpose, we conducted 15 in-depth, semistructured wardrobe interviews with current Black women college students. Overall, we identified three themes relating to Black women college students: experiences on predominantly White campuses, negotiating Black identity through dress, and negotiating activist identity through dress. Examining how Black women negotiate identity through dress recognizes their stories as important through counter-storytelling, allowing Black women to write their own history in their own voices.

Author(s):  
Kanita K. DuCloux ◽  
Michelle S. Jones ◽  
Jeffrey D. Herron

In this chapter, three Black faculty from two different predominantly white institutions (PWIs) reflect on how they were able to successfully transition their traditional face-to-face courses to online or remote courses in a short time frame. They briefly describe the two institutions followed by a discussion of the struggles with technological issues, the benefits and disadvantages of working from home, as well as the stress of coping with COVID-19-related issues. Next, the faculty describe the strategies implemented with college students to help the students navigate the transition and be successful in their courses when all schools, colleges, and universities were forced to make the switch from traditional face-to-face instruction to online or remote teaching due to the pandemic.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachelle Winkle-Wagner ◽  
Bridget Turner Kelly ◽  
Courtney L. Luedke ◽  
Tangela Blakely Reavis

Through analyzing critical life stories with Black alumnae from predominantly White institutions, this article offers a narrative, in-depth approach to explore the ways in which alumnae managed and resisted expectations and stereotypes that were placed upon them by peers, faculty, and staff during college. Findings suggested that participants grappled with assumptions of who they should be as Black college women. As they resisted stereotypes and expectations, they crafted unique pathways toward asserting their authentic selves. The findings emphasize heterogeneity among Black women and the need for varied support structures in educational institutions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina Spencer

While some predominantly white institutions can offer unique and laudable educational experiences to Black college students, they can also lack resources that provide these same students with a culturally affirming milieu. Black faculty and staff can organize their time, energy and resources to offer culturally enriching experiences for Black students. However, this additional labor is not systematically seen, cataloged or recognized as a core or essential duty. The author describes some effective forms of outreach from her personal experience and simultaneously asks whose job it is to meet the cultural needs of this population.


NASPA Journal ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lamont A. Flowers

This study examined the extent to which racial differences existed in self-reported intellectual and social gains between African American and White college students at predominantly White institutions. Taking into account the influence of an array of intervening variables, African American and White students reported significantly different intellectual and social gains in college. Implications for student affairs professionals are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 119 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Bridget Turner Kelly ◽  
Rachelle Winkle-Wagner

Background/Context Amidst scholarship that underscores the importance of Black women faculty in higher education, Black women are often not being retained in faculty positions at research universities. There is a gap in the research relative to how Black women experience the tenure process at predominantly White institutions, and this may have important implications for both recruitment and retention of Black women faculty. Purpose This analysis attempts to fill a gap in the literature on the recruitment and retention of faculty of color by asking: What are the experiences of Black women faculty on the tenure track at PWIs who are the only woman of color faculty member in their academic program? Drawing on data from qualitative longitudinal research with Black women faculty who were on the tenure track at PWIs, the primary purpose of this analysis was to understand four Black women's longitudinal reflections on their journey toward tenure at PWIs where they are “othered” by gender and race. Setting and Participants This project was part of a larger study of 22 women faculty who were on tenure-lines in two predominantly White research universities. This study focused on four Black women from this larger study. Research Design This study employed a qualitative longitudinal research design. Data Collection and Analysis: As part of the qualitative longitudinal research design, interviews were conducted each year for five years with each participant. Findings The findings of this analysis with Black women faculty on the tenure-line suggests that despite being the only person of color in their academic programs, they found ways to use their voice in and outside the academy. Finding and using their voices in the academy became a way to push back and resist some of the isolation and racism that the women experienced in the academy, and often the women did so in collectivist spaces with other Black women. Conclusions/Recommendations These findings of this study call into question predominantly White and male spaces in academia and ways that these spaces should be challenged to change. The Black women in this study coped by creating collectivist spaces and finding/ using their voices. Rather than focusing on how to encourage Black women to cope and survive in academia, there should be more emphasis on how to change institutional and departmental structures to make these spaces more inclusive and collectivist.


Author(s):  
Mahauganee Dawn Shaw ◽  
Modinat A. Sanni

In this chapter, research on the roles of mentoring and cultural nourishment within the institutional environment is used to contextualize the personal narratives of two Black women educators. The narratives come from the authors—women who were formally educated in predominantly White institutions and informally educated in a variety of African-centered community and family settings—and are used to highlight lessons gleaned from the authors' experiences as women of color within predominantly White educational settings, both as students and employees. Examples are provided to reveal how those lessons now guide their current work interacting with and advocating for students of color in similar institutional settings.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document