From Spirit-Murdering to Spirit-Building: Testimonios of Black and Brown Women Doctoral Students

• In Event: Race, Gender, and Resistance in the Academy

Abstract

This paper session explores how women of color doctoral students (WOCDS) in education navigate “terrain, trenches, and terrors” (Garcia, 2020, para.3) designed to “reduce, humiliate, and destroy” (Love, 2013, p. 2) the spirits of women of color in academia. Drawing from LatCrit, we offer three testimonios of experiences with spirit-murdering (Williams, 1989) that occurred as WOCDS attempt to understand what it means to take educational responsibility in a system rooted in hegemonic Whiteness.

Authors

• Chenelle Boatswain, University of Pennsylvania

• Karla M. Venegas, The University of Pennsylvania

• Sia Brown, University of Pennsylvania