Finding Solitude: Four Black Doctoral Students Exploring the Philosophical (Mis)Understandings of Qualitative Inquiry

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Qualitative Inquiry: Learning and Pedagogy

Abstract

During a qualitative inquiry course, we (four, Black, women, doctoral students) experienced first-hand how collegiate institutions can produce doubt in students and create spaces of exclusion. Specifically, for us, this included approaches to pedagogy, theory, and philosophy. In talking to each other before and after class, we found that we had shared thoughts and points of commonality on how we navigated the course. Using Patricia Hill Collin’s Black Feminist Thought (BFT) and Deleuze and Parnet’s concept of collaborative biography, we examine how we developed friendship and support around the difficult concepts presented in class. Through a collaborative, interrupted narrative, we explore how our experiences created a bond, developed a writing group, and fortified a confident group of scholars.

Authors

• Krystal Flantroy, The University of Alabama

• Erica T. Campbell, University of Alabama

• Kiara Summerville, The University of Alabama

• Ashley Nicole Prowell, The University of Alabama

• Stephanie Anne Shelton, The University of Alabama