Quiet Storms: African American Women Senior-Level Administrators at Predominately White Institutions as Tempered Radicals for Social Justice

• In Event: 16.056 - Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: 16.056-20 - Experiences of African American Leaders

Abstract

This study examines the role of African American women senior-level administrators as social justice advocates in higher education and beyond. Based on the historical and current challenges African American women experience in academia, the research suggests that African American women use less traditional strategies to advocate for social justice. Tempered Radicalism (Meyerson, 2001), an alternative method to advocate for change, is used as a lens to analyze the narratives of African American female senior-level administrators to understand how they advocate for social justice. This research is a secondary analysis of data from a study focused on the experiences, challenges, and strategies for success of African American women senior-level administrators at predominately white institutions of higher education.

Author

• Stella L. Smith, The University of Texas - Austin