Navigating Power, Building Community: A Critical Collaborative Autoethnography of a Women of Color Research Collective

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 11:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Pedagogies of Power, Community, and Freedom

Abstract

This Critical Collaborative Autoethnography explores how a Women of Color Research Collective (WCRC) cultivates a healing-centered, empowering space within academia. Despite the growing number of women of color receiving doctorates, women of color face significant underrepresentation and structural barriers in higher education. Grounded in intersectional, Chicanx/Black feminist epistemologies, we examine the testimonios of four early-career women scholars of color. Through dialogic reflection, we illuminate how our collective fosters trust, care, and holistic support amid isolation and institutional exclusion. The WCRC resists dominant norms, affirms our identities, and disrupts academic marginalization. Our findings reveal the dual labor women of color perform and offer a roadmap for building supportive collectives that inform equity-centered policy, mentorship, and institutional transformation in higher education.

Authors

• Marlene Brito, New York University

• Erika Marte, New York University

• Julie Pham, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Neha Sobti, Hofstra University