Toward a New Construction of Blackness: Being a Black Immigrant Woman in U.S. Academe

• In Event: Women in Academe

Abstract

In this collaborative autoethnography, two migrants from Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica respectively, analyze their emerging construction of Blackness in a white-dominant US academe. Using a variety of data sources including memory data, written documents, and focus group interviews, they uncover several commonalities/differences in their experiences as well as a four- part model that illustrates the process thought which they are apprehending their new status as Black women in the US context: (1.) Positioning; (2) Apprehending; (3) Navigating, (4) Resisting/Normalizing. In elaborating on this process, they critique the journey towards apprehending Black identity status and finding their voice in the academic and social discourse relevant to issues affecting people like them.

Authors

• Kathy-Ann C. Hernandez, Eastern University

• Kayon Murray-Johnson, Texas State University