Into the Future: Researchers' Role in Black Girlhood Methodology

• In Event: Black Women in Defense of Ourselves and Our Work

Abstract

This chapter provides reflection about creating methodological approaches to studying Black girlhood. As a Black woman PhD candidate who has been involved in many research projects about Black life at various institutions, it appears to me that researchers want to know how Black girls make it through life; my challenges also give me, and all Black girls and women, a unique standpoint epistemology to better see and understand networks of disciplinary power. My examination of method-making for the future of studies on Black girlhood argues that academics have the responsibility to challenge institutionalized traditions and policies that further cement racialized social orders through their research designs. Methodologies only describing the pain Black girls feel are pervasive in the academy. To combat this, I call for academics to create unique spaces of research and explore our traditions of storytelling and collaboration. My reflections are personal, creative, and hopeful.
My conviction about method-making is personal, creative, and promising. I call for
myself and others to produce work that aims to undo the harm that Black girls encounter in
various spaces. My own understanding of power networks shows me how discipline (discipline
in the form of standards/rules as well as confining academics to a particular field) affects the way
I studied and viewed Black girlhood. For example, as a Black woman PhD candidate, I have
been involved with many research projects about Black girlhood and feminism, in general, at
various institutions. I recognized that researchers wanted to know how Black girls made it
through life in light of many challenges. The researcher/university relationship is overarching,
complex, and absolute in the development of our studies and decisions about what researchers do
with the data (McMillian Cottom, 2018; Gould, 2021; McKittrick, 2021).

Author

• Taryrn T.C. Brown, University of Florida
  Presenting Author