Abstract
Current literature extols challenges that Black women in academia face. The evidence typically suggests lack of a critical mass of Black women in institutions are to blame for their diminished access to mentoring relationships, stifled tenure, promotion, and advancement rates, and contributes to an overall sense of isolation and overwork. Started in 2001, the Sisters of the Academy (SOTA) Institute created a network of Black women in academia. With a focus on professional development and mentoring, SOTA’s mission is to ensure that Black women thrive despite the oppression they experience in academia. Using a culturally responsive model for mentoring, the SOTA Research BootCamp serves as a professional counterspace focused on research development for early career scholars, advanced doctoral students, and junior scholars, while centering the perspectives of Black women to ground participants’ experiences. In this chapter we explore how culturally responsive mentoring serves as a model for: challenging the current deficit narrative about Black women in academia; developing culturally responsive mentors and protégés; and ensuring that Black women in academia thrive.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Barnett, R. (2014). The very idea of academic culture: What academy? What culture? Human Affairs, 24, 7–19.
Bertrand Jones, T., & Osborne-Lampkin, L. (2013). Black female faculty success and early career professional development. Negro Educational Review, 64(1–4), 59–75.
Bertrand Jones, T., Wu, Y., Patterson, S. M., & Pierre, D. F. (2016, April). Senior scholars on early career professional development for Black women emerging scholars. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Washington, DC.
Burt, B. A., Williams, K. L., & Palmer, G. J. (2019). It takes a village: The role of emic and etic adaptive strengths in the persistence of Black men in engineering graduate programs. American Educational Research Journal, 56(1), 39–74.
Collins, P. H. (1986). Learning from the outsider within: The sociological significance of Black feminist thought. Social Problems, 33(6), S14–S32.
Crisp, G., Baker, V. L., Griffin, K. A., Lunsford, L. G., & Pifer, M. J. (2017). Mentoring undergraduate students. ASHE Higher Education Report, 43(1), 7–103.
Davis, D. J., Chaney, C., Edwards, L., Thompson-Rogers, G. K., & Gines, K. T. (2012). Academe as extreme sport: Black women, faculty development, and networking. Negro Educational Review, 62/63(1–4), 167–187.
Davis, D. J., & Sutherland, J. (2008). Expanding access through doctoral education: Perspectives from two participants of the Sisters of the Academy Research Boot Camp. Journal of College Student Development, 49(6), 606–608.
Dillard, N. (2019, February). The stories we tell: Missing representations of mothering. Paper presented at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (SWPACA) 40th Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM.
Ford, J., & Bertrand Jones, T. (2017, October). The Black male research bootcamp: Intentionally shaping Black male doctoral student socialization. Paper presented at the International Colloquium on Black Males in Education (ICBME), Toronto, ON.
Fries-Britt, S., & Kelly, B. T. (2005). Retaining each other: Narratives of two African American women in the academy. The Urban Review, 37(3), 221–242.
Gardner, S. K. (2008). Fitting the mold of graduate school: A qualitative study of socialization in doctoral education. Innovative Higher Education, 33, 125–138.
Gregory, S. T. (2001). Black faculty females in the academy: History, status, and future. Journal of Negro Education, 70(3), 124–138.
Jean-Marie, G., & Brooks, J. S. (2011). Mentoring and supportive networks for women of color in academe. In G. Jean-Marie & B. Lloyd-Jones (Eds.), Women of color in higher education: Contemporary perspectives and new directions (Diversity in higher education series) (pp. 91–108). Bingley: Emerald Group.
Johnson-Bailey, J., & Cervero, T. (2004). Mentoring in black and white. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 12, 7–21.
McCoy, D. L., & Winkle-Wagner, R. (2015). Bridging the divide: Developing a scholarly habitus for aspiring graduate students through summer bridge program participation. Journal of College Student Development, 56(5), 423–439.
Moses, Y. (1997). Black women in academe: Issues and strategies. In L. Benjamin (Ed.), Black women in the academy: Promises and perils (pp. 23–38). Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.
Museus, S. D., Ledesma, M. C., & Parker, T. L. (2015). Racism and racial equity in higher education. ASHE Higher Education Report, 42(1), 1–112.
Nash, A. M., Nkrumah, T., Ottley, R. G., Peeples, K. M., & Pierre, D. F. (in press). Sankofa sisters: Returning to sisterhood to secure our progress. In T. Bertrand Jones, D. Davis-Maye, S. G. Rahming, & J. Andrew (Eds.), Black sisterhoods: Black women’s representations of sisterhood. Demeter.
Overstreet, M. (2019). My first year in academia or the mythical black woman superhero takes on the ivory tower. Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education, 12(1), 18–34.
Patton, L. D. (2009). My sister’s keeper: A qualitative examination of mentoring experiences among African American women in graduate and professional schools. The Journal Higher Education, 80(1), 510–537.
Ponjuan, L., Conley, V. M., & Trower, C. (2011). Career stage differences in pre-tenure track faculty perceptions of professional and personal relationships with colleagues. The Journal of Higher Education, 82(3), 319–346.
Stanley, C. A. (2006). Coloring the academic landscape: Faculty of color breaking the silence in predominantly White colleges and universities. American Educational Research Journal, 43(4), 701–736.
Stanley, C. A. (2007). When counter narratives meet master narratives in the journal editorial-review process. Educational Researcher, 36(1), 14–24.
Thomas, C. D., & Hollenshead, C. (2001). Resisting from the margins: The coping strategies of Black females and other females of color faculty members at a research university. Journal of Negro Education, 70(3), 166–175.
Thomas, N. (2019). In the service of social equity: Leveraging the experiences of African American women professors. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 25(2), 185–206.
Thompson, G. L., & Louque, A. C. (2005). Exposing the ‘culture of arrogance’ in the academy: A blueprint for increasing Black faculty satisfaction in higher education. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Turner, C. S. V., González, J. C., & Wood, J. L. (2008). Faculty of color in academe: What 20 years of literature tells us. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 1(3), 139–168.
Turner, C. S. V., & Myers, S. L., Jr. (2000). Faculty of color in academe: Bittersweet success. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2018). Race/ethnicity of college faculty. Retrieved November 2019, from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=61
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2019). Doctor’s degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions, by race/ethnicity and sex of student: Selected years, 1976–77 through 2016–17. Retrieved November 2019, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_324.20.asp
Villalpando, O., & Bernal, D. D. (2002). A critical race theory analysis of barriers that impede the success of faculty of color. In W. Smith, P. Altbach, & K. Lomotey (Eds.), The racial crisis in American higher education (pp. 243–269). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Weidman, J. C., Twale, D. J., & Stein, E. L. (2001). Socialization of graduate and professional students in higher education: A perilous passage? New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.
West, N. M., & Bertrand Jones, T. (2019). Architects of change in the ivory tower: Recasting the role of Black women engaged in higher education professional counterspaces. In U. Thomas (Ed.), Navigating micro-aggressions toward women in higher education (pp. 23–52). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bertrand Jones, T., Ford, J.R., Pierre, D.F., Davis-Maye, D. (2020). Thriving in the Academy: Culturally Responsive Mentoring for Black Women’s Early Career Success. In: Crimmins, G. (eds) Strategies for Supporting Inclusion and Diversity in the Academy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43593-6_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43593-6_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-43592-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-43593-6
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)