Black Women in Academe: A Cross-Contextual Duo-Ethnographic Account

• In Event: 54.074 - Women in Higher Education

Abstract

Drawing on post structural feminist theory, the paper explores the positionality, complexity and diversity in the lives of two Black scholars in the United States (US) and in the Caribbean. The main objectives of this focus are the need to capture the contextual nature and effects of embodied racialized, gendered experiences and the ways in which such reflection and problematization of the sites and related struggles can reconfigure the experiences of Black female scholars across the globe. Findings suggest that the historical peculiarities of the place (both at institutional and national levels) produce varying nuisances that differently affect our positionalities, forms of consciousness and the fluidity of our attempt to reclaim professional opportunities and selves overtime.

Authors

• Talia Randa Esnard, The University of the West Indies - St. Augustine

• Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, University of South Florida