Emancipation as Unfinished Business: Portraits of Black Women Academics in Higher Education Across the Diaspora

• In Event: Gender equity in Higher education

Proposal

The academy can be a hostile place for Black women academics as it was not designed to support, sustain or retain them, especially in former colonies and colonialist countries (Author 1 & Jadhav, 2021).  They often experience multiple forms of sexism, ageism and racism leading to their intellectual disposability, increased time to promotion and intersectional erasure (Patton & Njoku, 2019; Rollock, 2019).  Crenshaw’s (1991) intersectional erasure underscores the extreme invisibility of Black women and girls in “triple” jeopardy in a white capitalist society, which is the enduring legacy of all colonized countries. Black women faculty often experience social, cultural, and intellectual isolation (Gregory, 2001), are often overworked, underappreciated, and underpaid within the academy (Sue  et al., 2011). The literature points to continuous issues within the British and Dutch Caribbean as well as the UK and Netherlands whereby Black female academics are forced to navigate several social, historical, economic, political and emotional challenges (Essed, 2004; Reddock, 2007; Rollock, 2019; Shepherd, 2019).
Given the historical exclusion and scholarly neglect of Black women academics in the literature as well as their underrepresentation in the professoriate (Croom, 2017; Porter et al., 2020), this comparative study seeks to center their experiences and illustrate how the effects of multiple intersecting forms of oppression have contributed to their underrepresentation. The guiding research question is as follows:
• How do Black women academics in Anglophone and Dutch Caribbean countries and in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands describe their lived experiences at the intersections of race, gender, and state of coloniality?
This study uses a combined framework of coloniality and intersectionality to better understand Black women academic experiences. The social and historical contexts in which higher education institutions were built operate within the coloniality of power.  The legacy of coloniality is present in laws, governing institutions, societal norms, language and parts of European, British and Caribbean culture. Mignolo (2017) describes coloniality as a matrix of power or long-standing state of power interrelated within systems, structures and policies as a result of European colonialism. 
Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991) provides the necessary lens to examine the experiences of Black women academics. Intersectionality is a Black feminist epistemology that describes how interlocking systems of oppression, such as racism, sexism and colonialism, simultaneously press down and shape Black women’s everyday lives (Haynes, Author 1 & Patton, forthcoming). Kimberle Crenshaw is credited for coining the term intersectionality and introducing the concept through legal and academic discourse (Haynes, et al., 2020).
Intersectionality methodology (IM) provides scholars with a nuanced methodological approach for taking up intersectionality in their study of Black women in education research, and social science research broadly (Haynes, et al., 2020). Intersectionality methodology enables qualitative researchers to generate sophisticated intersectional analysis that shows how Black women experience: 1) intersectional erasure, 2) intersectional failure and 3) use their study findings to pinpoint intersectional interventions to undo the intersectional subordination that Black women endure.
Methods
Coupled with IM, this study employs portraiture as its method of qualitative inquiry. Portraiture is a form of qualitative inquiry method designed to intricately capture the complexity, dynamics, and subtleties of human experience and organizational life (Lawrence-Lightfoot, 2005). Prior to data collection, the study was reviewed and received IRB approval. There were three phases for data collection procedures including two, 60-90 minute interviews and participants sharing an image of artistic expression that reflected their lived experiences at the intersections of race, gender, and state of coloniality.
Using snowball sampling, the study included 21 Black women academics who currently work at a public higher education institution. Each recording was reviewed along with member-checking of transcriptions. Within country/ region and across country/ region comparative analysis was completed for this study. First cycle coding methods include descriptive, in-vivo, initial and theory-based coding (Saldana, 2009). Pattern coding for second-cycle coding methods for the development of major themes were then applied. 

Preliminary Findings

Comparative data across the former colonies and previous colonialist states suggest that intersectionality methodology offers a deeper understanding of what is meant by 1) intersectional erasure, 2) institutional intersectional failure and 3) re/ claiming Black women academics’ forms of resistance to the day-to-day disposability and erasure that occurs at their institutions. Below represent excerpts of the cross-comparative analysis of the interview data.
 
Cross-Comparative Category 1
Intersectional Erasure: Simultaneously Hyper/ Hypo (In)visible

Patterns in the data suggest Black women academics in  both England and the former British colonies are viewed, valued and judged simultaneously as both hyper-visible and hypo- (in)visible. This means there are instances where Black women academics are both seen as exotic and novel; possessing personal and professional characteristics that are considered rare and extraordinary. In England, the academics described experiences of being the only one in their department or Faculty, or one of very few. Hypo-(in)visibility meant still present but below normal visibility, as a form of assimilation to blend in.  In Trinidad, the lecturer described being one of many but at the same time, the complexity of being non-binary and gender-fluid, and a hesitancy to identify as Afro-Caribbean.  The lecturer in Trinidad further described a scenario when they were in an online conference and their title was gendered and reclassified on the screen without their agreement.  Specifically, the lecturer stated, “I always write ‘Dr.’ when I am on Zoom, so that there is no mistaking how I would like to be referred to, however this time, the host removed the Dr. and replaced it with Miss, so I kept editing, thinking it was a mistake until I had to disturb the meeting and ask that it not be changed again.” Incidences like these are reminiscent of intersectional erasure in respect to being mis-titled or academically disposed of in a professional setting.
Comparatively, the experiences of Black female academics in former colonies and colonialist countries can be described as multidimensional yet uniquely tied to the state of coloniality. This comparative research study expands on retention strategies to address intersectional erasure of Black women academics, and build a cadre of intersectional interventions, policies and practices to support their success.

Author

• Saran Stewart, University of Connecticut