The Limitations of Freedom in Higher Education: Impacts of Natural Hair on Black Female Development

• In Event: 29.082 - Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: 29.082-2 - Black and Latino Men Overcoming Obstacles to Equitable Education Opportunities

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to close the gap on the intersection of bodily self-expression, race, gender, and education through the qualitative examination of seven Black women’s experiences going natural as students enrolled at a predominantly White institution. The researchers hope to better understand how Black women and men learn about the self throughout the transitioning process within the context of higher education. It is imperative that we continue to further our understanding of Black women and men’s self and racial identity in the context of their higher education experience, professional identity, and career development because expressions of identity transcend the physical and extend into perceptions of respectability, worth, and value in an imperialist white supremacist patriarchal society (hooks, 2006).

Authors

• Robin Phelps-Ward, Clemson University

• Jimmy L. Howard, Clemson University