Religious Socialization and Self-Definition Among Black Undergraduate Women Attending Predominantly White Institutions

To date, few scholars have explored religious and spiritual socialization among emerging adult Black women. In this study, we analyzed semi-structured interview data from 50 Black undergraduate women to explore associations between childhood religious socialization messages and current religious beliefs in emerging adulthood. Consensual qualitative methods revealed two broad domains and six themes. The first domain, “religious alignment,” included: (1) internalizing religion and (2) educating others on religious beliefs. The second domain, “religious departure,” included: (3) modifying religious expectations to fit developing beliefs, (4) employing religion as a pathway to self-acceptance, (5) picking and choosing battles within their religious community, and (6) choosing an alternate religious or faith system. Findings highlighted how the women started to take ownership of their religious experiences, as well as how they used religious practices, such as prayer, to cope with gendered racism. Authors discuss the implications of emerging adulthood on Black women’s religious identities.

Assessing collaboration among team scientists within a triadic research center partnership

Few studies have utilized qualitative methods to assess the perceived effectiveness of collaboration among research center interdisciplinary team scientists. Stages of team development served as the theoretical framework to characterize minority serving institution (MSI) and predominantly White institutions (PWI) participants’ challenges and successes during a National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored cancer health disparities training and research program. We present the finding of an inductive analysis of four open-ended survey questions across two years. Fostering an awareness of the inherently taxing, yet centrality of group (team) development may advance an understanding of team dynamics and lead to increased team cohesion and productivity. In conclusion, we provide recommendations to assist multiple principal investigators who embark on team development.

Strategies for Support: Black Women Faculty Career Advancement at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Although there is an abundance of scholarship about the challenges presented to Black women faculty at Predominantly White Institutions, the career advancement of Black women faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities has gone largely unnoticed. Considering Historically Black Colleges and Universities are where Black women faculty achieve tenure in the highest percentages, this study took a non-deficit perspective and investigated what supports are used by Black women faculty both internal to the institution and externally. The sites of this study were 43 HBCUs with 25% or more of tenured faculty comprised of Black women. Faculty rank and discipline were considered when comparing the survey data. Some supports include networks, family, religion, collaboration, and other strategies. This study provides a preliminary step in studying what supports Black women find most useful in navigating their faculty careers.

It Doesn't Have to Protest: A Review of Black or Right: Anti/Racist Campus Rhetorics

[To predominantly white institutions:] Whose responsibility is it to make our Black community feel like their lives matter here, and what are we purposefully and creatively doing about it [every day] to live up to it? Reflecting critically on my own intimate experiences as a Black doctoral student, college lecturer, and former student affairs professional in predominantly white spaces, I share an insightful review of Louis M. Maraj’s (2020) riveting new book, Black or Right: Anti/Racist Campus Rhetorics. Based on the title, I initially expected Black or Right to be some sort of a guidebook to help campuses learn how to refrain from using racist language in their marketing, programming, classrooms, and ways of interacting with campus constituents and community partners. I speculated that it would teach these same folx how to make Black faculty, staff, and students feel welcomed and equal instead of anxious and hyperaware. I thought about the white colleagues [and students] I could pass this text on to, with the accompanying note, “You might like this!,” which really means, “You need this.” Sigh. While Black or Right is not a guidebook on how to eliminate racist language on college campuses or an explicit outline for how to embrace the Black members on them, it is a beautiful piece of choreographed words that illustrates, examines, and disrupts how decolonized ways of writing, storytelling, and ways of being, teaching, and communicating on college campuses confronts, strategizes, calls out/in, and proclaims notions of Blackness in anti-Black spaces. I argue that this type of work is far more important than a Black person writing another book to teach white people how to talk to and treat us. Black or Right pays homage to and educates readers on the Black academy’s social justice pioneers, whose trailblazing paths and research encourage us to keep running in this race and reminds us we are dynamic. Courageously accepting the baton to complete the next leg, Maraj empowers and pushes us to run alongside him through his creative ability to discuss these topics through literary events, discussions, and assignments he has created in his own safe space, in his classroom. Brother Maraj, thank you for bringing your whole self, multiple identities, and diverse lived experiences to this text. In the spirit of your mother who allowed you to leave the islands to come to the US for greater opportunities - this book is a manifestation of her knowing your worth. Thank you for writing this fascinating piece that reminds us to never forget our worth, to demand our respect, and for educating and engaging all people in this necessary dialogue. Black is right. Black is right. Black is right. But Black folx are always protesting. Dear Brothers and Sisters, never forget: We always mattered.

Black Male Executives in Higher Education: The Experience of Ascending the Academic Leadership Ladder

The Problem The current pipeline supplying qualified and competent leaders to the upper ranks of higher education appears to prelimit the number of Black males who reach executive status. Even though many universities and colleges remain resolute in increasing diversity, social, and structural barriers block access and restrict executive development. This study focuses on the leadership and career advancement of Black male executive leaders in predominantly White institutions (PWI’s) of higher education. The Solution This qualitative, phenomenological examination of the lived experiences of 10 Black male, executive leaders in predominantly White institutions of higher education describes what it is like for them to persist in their leadership roles despite negative experiences that are related to their social identity. The findings reveal how their existence in racialized environments has impacted their leadership approach and the trajectory of their careers. The Stakeholders The stakeholders are Black academics seeking or holding executive leadership roles in higher education; HRD scholars and practitioners.

Creating Community Through Affinity Groups for Minority Students in Communication Sciences and Disorders

This viewpoint article describes an effective model for creating and sustaining an affinity group for undergraduate and graduate students from racial and ethnic backgrounds historically underrepresented in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association who are enrolled in communication sciences and disorders (CSD) programs at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). The Speech-Language Therapy & Audiology Minority Program (STAMP) at Nazareth College is an affinity group and mentorship program for undergraduate and graduate students, CSD program alumni, and area professionals who identify as minorities. Affinity groups have been shown to increase the sense of belonging of minority students at PWIs. At Nazareth College, we have observed this as students who participate in STAMP have reported that the program contributes to their feeling of belonging in the CSD department and at the institution and provides them with a safe place where they can share and discuss their experiences as minorities at a PWI. Additionally, our students have reported that participating in this affinity group supports their academic and clinical success and helps them manage their stress. By sharing our model for creating an affinity group for underrepresented CSD students at a PWI, we hope to encourage the establishment and support of groups like STAMP in CSD programs across the country. Considerations for departments considering starting their own affinity groups are discussed. STAMP, and other affinity groups, have the potential to grow by facilitating constructive discussion and collective action toward issues that significantly impact students from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds.

FORUM: Stripping Away the Body: Prospects for Reimagining Race in IR

It is impossible to talk about race in international relations (IR) without acknowledging the early and groundbreaking intervention of a couple of special issues, followed by conversation-changing book anthologies. Despite these contributions, mainstream IR continues to marginalize the valuable work of non-white institutions and people, while minimizing the role of race and racism in the discipline. In the wake of a historic racial uprising in the United States (and globally) during the summer of 2020, IR scholars returned to critical discussions of race and racism in the contemporary moment. Although the current conversations on race in IR are crucial for directing the field toward a more generative path, there is still work to be done. Many of the existing formulations of race orient the concept around the somatic. The overreliance on the body as an indication of race can obscure how race as a set of dispossessing structures supported and reproduced through a variety of agents and mechanisms can be discerned through other means. Body-centric conceptualizations of race are also typically divorced from their origins at the root of capitalism, in favor of more US-centric renderings of race as identity. The contributors to this forum think through race as the concomitant othering and rank-ordering of groups that translates into material conditions. We illustrate how race as a material–spatial–temporal relation of power exposes the limits of race as merely phenotype or culture. Through our examination of race in this light, issues of gender effortlessly emerge alongside the study of race. As such, we demonstrate how a re-reading of IR with this formulation of race as its central tenet offers a more generative avenue for explorations of class, gender, security, and power, writ large.