Navigating the Politics of Retrenchment in Higher Education: Four Senior Scholars Reflect B(l)ack

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In this session, four Black higher education senior scholars reflect on Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw’s (1988) article “Race, Reform & Retrenchment: Transformation and Legitimization in Anti-Discrimination Law.” Through politicizing higher education, state and federal governments have created a crisis of retrenchment from racial equity through the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and positions; attacks on critical race theory; and undermining academic freedom through cutting academic programs (e.g. Black studies, Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies; Queer Studies). The policies used to rid higher education of these reforms are masked as efforts to promote equality and meritocracy. However, the opposite has occurred and resulted in the retrenchment of several gains realized by student and community political activism over the last 70 years.

Sub Unit

• Division J - Postsecondary Education / Division J - Section 6: Society, Culture, History, and Change

Chair

• Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher, University of Pittsburgh

Papers

• Navigating Research Agendas Centered on Black Life in the Academy - Lori Patton Davis, University of California, Los Angeles

• Scholars Teaching, Researching, and Consulting in DEI: Applying Lessons Learned - Darin M. L. Stewart, University of Denver

• Realizing Aspirations, Career Growth, and Advancement During Moments of Retrenchment - Joy Gaston Gayles, North Carolina State University

• Color-evasive Repression: DEI Rollbacks and the Logic of Legitimation - Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher, University of Pittsburgh

Session Organizer

• Darin M. L. Stewart, University of Denver

Discussant

• Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher, University of Pittsburgh