Sustaining Abolitionist Leadership: A Community Autoethnographic Study of Struggle and Joy Within a Collective

• In Event: Sustaining Antiracist and Abolitionist Leadership

Abstract

This community autoethnographic study investigates sustaining abolitionist leadership within a collective. Drawing on insights from multiple theories, including Critical Race Theory, BlackCrit, and Fugitive Pedagogy, Critical Whiteness Studies, and Critical Theory of Love, three members of an abolitionist leadership working group (ALWG) analyzed autoethnographic narratives and reflections guided by four driving questions. Overall, our analysis revealed that participants came to and are sustained by the collective through love and joy. Findings also illustrated that participant identity, as well as individual and collective challenges in the work of abolitionist leadership, added to the difficulty of sustaining the work.

Authors

• Maha Jacobs, California State University - East Bay
  Presenting Author

• Maria Celestina Leyson, Castro Valley Unified School District
  Presenting Author

• Melissa Andrea Potts, California State University - East Bay
  Presenting Author

• Stacy Nicole Southern, California State University - East Bay
  Presenting Author

• Britt SchlaeGuada, The Athenian School
  Presenting Author