Three Women of Color Engage in Realizing a Reimagined Doctoral Program

• In Event: Reimagining Social Justice in Doctoral Programs

Abstract

As three women of color doctoral students, we engaged in a reimagining of doctoral education from our situatedness on the margins of academia. Building on white settler colonialism and critical race theory’s surfacing of the ways in which doctoral education at historically white institutions perpetuate white supremacy, we engaged in a collaborative process to uncover the oppressive liminality of our lived experiences and generated the mission and elements of a reimagined doctoral education. This reimagining considers the prioritization and enactment of teaching and learning, co-constructing the doctoral program plan, and reconceptualizing mentorship. Our proposal of a humanizing doctoral education purposed toward social justice shifts the discourse from surviving the academy towards one centered around thriving.

Authors

• Venus Israni, Boston College

• Courtnye R. Lloyd, Boston College

• Sara Suzuki, Boston College