Moving from Mentoring to Jegnaship: Reconceptualizing HOW we Engage Black Women in the Academy

• In Event: The Sankofa Research Intensive (SRI): A Fugitive Space for Scholars Centering Black Children In Research

Abstract

In this paper, I critically explore how I engaged black women doctoral students in my role as Jegna at the Sankofa Research Intensive. As an African American female faculty member in a doctoral program at a historically black university or HBCU in Alabama, I started to systematically examine my approach to mentoring at the onset of the COVID pandemic using autoethnography. Surrounded by sickness and death in 2020, we all struggled to remain focused and productive. Our doctoral program permanently shifted to virtual and I examined how to more purposefully engage the doctoral students I mentor; intentionally looking for a model that to guide how I engaged doctoral students. Since the global pandemic, scholars highlighted the need to help doctoral students navigate trauma and grief. Bordogna & Lundgren-Resenterra (2023) recommended coaching as one strategy to help doctoral students identify the goals and skills necessary to achieve their ambitions. Hradsky et al. (2022), given the isolation associated with the doctoral process, advocated for the adoption of collaborative instructional strategies. Prieto et al. (2022), citing widespread ‘low emotional well-being’ among doctoral students, believe a relationship exists between academic progress, emotional well-being, and dropout ideations. While the research on doctoral students highlights the need to adopt a holistic approach to help doctoral students navigate the dissertation process, the marginalization that black women experience in the academy prior to the global pandemic highlights the need to evolve a different approach to mentoring for all students, but particularly for black female doctoral students.

Author

• Kimberly L. King-Jupiter, Alabama State University