Ataraxia and Placemaking: BlackMothering in the Academy (Poster 44)

• In Event: Friday Poster Session 9:35 am
  In Poster Session: Division G: Policies Mattering and Praxis Poster Session

Abstract

Using a Blackmother-Scholar (BMS) epistemology this poetic piece analyzes the experiences of Black women faculty. The researchers used a BMS methodology to analyze the lived experiences of the faculty. BMS uses peace as a fugitive praxis of resistance that provides a network for others and themselves in a place that excluded a Black woman's identity as a mother, a Black women’s intellectualism, and Black women’s teachings. This performance tells of how Blackmothering cultivates a way to resist grief within the academy to access peace and joy. We offer a Black spiritual call-and-response to engage ourselves, fully in our work, while helping readers become one with emotionality, and reckoning that seeks to use text as a transformational act of justice.

Authors

• Julia Lynch, University of North Carolina - Wilmington

• Monisha W. Atkinson, East Carolina University