An Endarkened Feminist Autoethnography of Navigating Tenure as a Black Woman at a Predominantly White Institution

• In Event: Tenure at What Cost? The Stories of Faculty of Color Striving for Success

Abstract

An autoethnography of a Black woman's navigation of tenure at a PWI is shared. The first Black woman to earn tenure in education at her university, the author illuminates insights gleaned from triumphs and tribulations encountered throughout her journey. Troubling traditional methods of autoethnography that center the self, the author uses an endarkened feminist theoretical framework to illustrate the power of nkwa (life-affirming) ethnography. Nkwaethnography is not a story of a singular self, but allows the autoethnographer to share stories of we, and how the individual can connect to the collective. In this case, the author shares how her experiences and intersectional identities connect to the Black woman collective and minoritized women more broadly in the academy.

Author

• Ayana Allen-Handy, Drexel University