A.C.E.ing It and Healing from Academic Woundedness!

• In Event: Feminist Decoloniality as Care joint panel of presentations and arts-based research by USA and South African academics

Proposal

Last year, the AAUP released its first tenure tracking report in nearly 20 years. It was already challenging for Black female professors to make tenure, with Black Women making up less than 2% of tenured professors, new institutional changes such as Contingency protocol, have made it even harder. At the center of attacks and all forms of rejection and denial of the Black Female Academician is their Voice. By denying their Voice in their work and from the location of Self, the credibility and validity of all that they are and achieved comes into question. In many instances, they even turn these questions toward themselves – initiating and implanting internalized colonization. The painful affects, called Academic Woundedness, as to who we are, is felt deeply and can permeate every area of our being…and the negative effects can linger.

To address this pain, professors search for some type of restoration. Some take Voice and battles to legal courts to be heard, while others use social media to make their cases known in the courts of public opinion. In both cases, the remnants of healing are often times found outside of the individual and can take years to obtain. To make matters more challenging, at the end of these processes, there is no guarantee of effective emotional and spiritual healing from within.
Active Centralized Empowerment (A.C.E.) is a national award winning praxis, theory and critical pedagogy developed over 18 years, that uses the authentic Voice of an individual for demarginalization. They Actively Center themselves and their Voice on their authentic truth that, in turn, Empowers them to move from the Margins to a place of healing. It works across identities and disciplines.
Storytelling, being heard, is a firm catalyst to Emotional Healing. Speeches, articles, essays, and spoken word are popular examples of re-centering one’s voice. Fine Arts, such as Music Engagement, is another form of healing and Emotional Intelligence . So, why not combine the two just to get it out? Why not sing and dance and perform your way through your difficulties? Like the therapeutic method of just screaming when you’re alone or in your therapist’s office when you have had enough, exercising when you need a bolt of positive energy, it’s all healing. Releasing the bad and letting in the good hormones and energy that heals Self and Empowers an individual to love who they are and keep it moving! To A.C.E. it!
This creative endeavor presents overcoming and breaking through Academic Woundedness on a professor’s own terms, with their own story and their own music. All original. All for self-healing and self-care. Speaking directly to a person’s soul and spirit, Voice, Self-Empowerment, Value and Agency, are restored. This New Black Girl Magic speaks loud and proud. Let Me Hear Ya!

Author

• Janice Marie Collins, Ohio University