What the Syllabus Didn’t Say: A Scholarly Personal Narrative of a Black Woman’s Invisible Labor in Graduate Education

• In Event: The Wages of Blackness: Black Women and Women of Color in the Academy

Abstract

This reflective work draws upon the critical practice of scholarly letter writing, as modeled by Beatty et al. (2020), who examined anti-Blackness in higher education while centering love, care, and wellness for Black students. Building on this tradition, I write from the intersection of care and criticality to illuminate the invisible labor disproportionately placed on Black women in graduate education, particularly within doctoral programs. Through personal reflection and analytical insight, this piece explores the gendered and racial dynamics that demand emotional, cultural, and institutional labor from Black women while rendering that labor invisible. It also affirms the necessity of healing practices—both individual and collective—as essential to reimagining the flourishing futures of Black women in academic spaces.

Author

• Katrina A Calhoun, University of Massachusetts - Amherst