1st Edition

Counternarratives from Women of Color Academics Bravery, Vulnerability, and Resistance

Edited By Manya Whitaker, Eric Joy Denise Copyright 2019
    186 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    186 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    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.

    Foreword

    By Bianca Williams

    Preface

    Chapter 1: Introduction

    By Manya C. Whitaker and Eric Anthony Grollman

    PART I: Resisting Convention: Counternarratives to Conventional Norms and Practices in the Academy

    Chapter 2: Leading as a Chicana Feminist in a Predominantly White Institution

    By Yolanda Flores Niemann

    Chapter 3: What Looks Like Bravery in the Academy: Reflections of an African-American Woman Engineer

    By Gilda Barabino

    Chapter 4: Being Brave in the Ivory Towers as "Zape-tah-hol-ah" (Sticks with Bow)

    By Robin Zape-tah-hol-ah Starr Minthorn

    Chapter 5: "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

    By Nancy López

    Chapter 6: Resisting Sexual Harassment in Academia

    By Tayler J. Mathews

    Chapter 7: Un-Disciplined: A Conversation Between Two Sisters Who Left Graduate School

    By Aph Ko and Syl Ko

    Chapter 8: "You’re Doing What?!?": Leaving Academia to Answer the Call

    By Roxanna Harlow

    PART II. Collective Resistance: Counternarratives to the Ethos of Individualistic Meritocracy in the Academy

    Chapter 9: Love Note

    By Robbin Chapman

    Chapter 10: La Colectiva: Peer Mentoring on the Path to Thrival

    By Mariela Nuñez-Janes, Amelia M. Kraehe, Alicia Re Cruz, Valerie Martinez-Ebers, Bertina H. Combes, and Andrea Silva

    Chapter 11: Fiery Mind, Full Heart, Brave Soul: A Model for Women of Color to Thrive in Historically White Colleges and Universities

    By Robbin Chapman

    Chapter 12: Courageous Xicanas: Living Legacies of Comadrazgo in the Academy

    By Kandace Creel Falcón

    Chapter 13: "We Got You": What Raising Up the Next Generation of Scholar-Activists Has Taught Me

    By Janelle M. Silva

    Chapter 14: On the Wings of Communal Bravery

    By Nelli Sargsyan

    PART III. Embodied Resistance: Counternarratives to Hegemonic Identities in the Academy

    Chapter 15: a letter for Auntie Lorde

    By Aja Lenae Johnson

    Chapter 16: On Being Powerfully Vulnerable and Why I Love My Black Woman’s Tears

    By Kelsey Jones

    Chapter 17: Vulnerability: The New Brave

    By Natanya Ann Pulley

    Chapter 18: Undocumented in the Ivory Tower

    By Alessandra Bazo Vienrich

    Chapter 19: A Latinx Testimonio of Motherhood in Academia

    By Patricia Herrera

    Chapter 20: On Desiderata

    By Alta Mauro

    Afterword

    By Archana A. Pathak

    List of Contributors

    Biography

    Manya C. Whitaker is an assistant professor of Education at Colorado College, USA.


    Eric Joy Denise is an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Richmond, USA.