"Okay Ladies, Get In-formation!" Black Women Igniting Histories of Black Childhood and Education via Public Scholarship

• In Event: Black Womanhood in Education

Abstract

Public scholarship has many meanings in higher education. Although, scholarly definitions identify key components of public scholarship, these definitions do not provide a window into how Black women define and practice public scholarship. Using ethnohistorical and ethnographic methods, this paper will examine and illuminate the public scholarship work of a group of Black women (i.e. researcher and informants) engaged in restoring histories of Black childhood and education by creating a local museum in a historic Rosenwald School in Pickens County, Alabama. Preliminary findings reveal Black women scholars and community actors use practices of two-way mentorship as they seek to interchangeably empower one another – across age, experiential knowledge, research, and lived experience – while they also aim to uplift community.

Author

• Kimberly Charis Ransom, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor