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Chapter 9 - Testimonials of Exodus: Self-Emancipation in Higher Education through the Power of Womanism

from Part III - Strategies for Inclusion and Retention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2022

By
Jean Swindle  and
Larissa Malone
Edited by
Antija M. Allen  and
Justin T. Stewart
Antija M. Allen
Affiliation:
Pellissippi State Community College, Teachers College Columbia University
Justin T. Stewart
Affiliation:
Allen Ivy Prep Consulting
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Summary

This study chronicles the self-emancipatory journey of two Black female scholars from small, predominantly White liberal institutions in the American Midwest, through narrative inquiry, and by employing an Africana womanist lens. The authors use narrative vignettes to illustrate representative incidents that punctuated and pervaded their trajectories as pre-tenured faculty at their respective higher education institutions. In this reflective analysis, although the authors acknowledge their valuable contributions to the institutions, students of color, and other underrepresented student populations, they make the difficult decision to prioritize their mental, emotional, and intellectual well-being. Grounding their emancipatory process in the Africana womanist tenets of being self-namers and self-definers, the authors connoted a keen awareness of their spirituality, mothering, and wholeness. The authors underscored their imperative to self-liberate while also providing practical strategies to higher education institutions interested in supporting and retaining Black faculty.

Keywords

Africana womanismblack female facultynarrative inquiryself-emancipation
Type
Chapter
Information
We're Not OK
Black Faculty Experiences and Higher Education Strategies
 , pp. 147 - 168
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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