"Welcome to the Family Reunion": A Framework for Engaging and Writing Within the Black/Africana Intellectual Tradition

• In Event: The Writing Reunion: Surviving the Academy Through the Black Familial Tradition

Abstract

Institutions of higher education present many challenges for scholars of color, and in particular, African Americans. Understanding and navigating the complex terrain of higher education presents a challenge for junior faculty and advanced graduate scholars (Dade et al., 2015). As a form of transformational resistance, the “Family Reunion” academic writing collective was formed.
The Family Reunion Writing Collective (FRWC) was born out of an African-centered research collaborative/apprenticeship, HeKA (Heritage Knowledge in Action). The HeKA Collaborative is an interdisciplinary communal learning space for Black doctoral students and faculty “to resist and transcend” (King et al., 2019, p. 189) the colonized structure and practices in higher education (Patel, 2016). Under the tutelage of Joyce King, the HeKA Collaborative provided a space to engage us in experiences and with literature in the Black/Africana intellectual tradition. The Family Reunion Writing Collective consists of five African American emerging scholars who continue the Black/African intellectual tradition within our smaller collaboration. While both groups share a common purpose - individual and community well-being and development as a shared responsibility - the FRWC emerged as an effective tool for building a cross-institutional community that reaffirms and nourishes our Africanist theories of knowledge and cultural traditions.
Objectives and Theoretical Framework
The purpose of this manuscript is to present a communal/familial writing group framework. This framework draws on African theoretical conceptions grounded in the epistemological and ontological ways of being and knowing that supports the mental and spiritual wellbeing of emerging, Black scholars in academe. This Afrocentric approach to analyzing our discussions within the context of Black reality counteracts with Eurocentric notions and approaches to objective scientific inquiry (Kambon, 2012).
Methods, Data Sources, Results
At the time of this proposal, our writing group has met weekly for 10 months. Transcriptions of group conversations served as the primary data source. Additional data included the number of publications, presentations, and letters produced from participation in this collective. Emergent themes and culturally-informed rituals informed the generation of a communal/familial writing group framework.
Scholarly Significance
The communal writing accountability group for emerging scholars of color needs to be considered within institutions of higher education. The development of academic identities for African Americans in higher education is critical in sustaining long-term professional careers (Montgomery et al., 2014). Emergent themes from an Africanist familial tradition may elucidate prosocial mechanisms foster Black excellence. This paper presents a communal/familial writing group model that supports the mental and spiritual wellbeing of young Black scholars in academe.
The FRWC allows us to reclaim our individual and collective ways of being and knowing so that we may continue to breathe, write, and nourish our souls in academia. We hope this communal research and writing framework will contribute to existing literature citing the benefits of collaborations among scholars of color and also encourages other emerging scholars of color to develop their own “family-based” research and writing collective.

Author

• Adrian Neely, Morehouse College