The experiences of Black women staff were at the forefront of this study as a way to create space for Black women by a Black woman. The experiences of staff and more specifically staff a color are often an afterthought (Cho & Brassfield, 2022) which has created some cultures of toxicity (Steele, 2018) and expected niceness (Liera, 2020). Black…

Historically white institutions (HWIs) across the country are, in some way or another, working to address racial disparities within their organizations. As a part of campus diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, DEI advocates work to examine ways to increase faculty and student recruitment and boost the retention of marginalized groups.…

In this paper, Caitlin Murphy Brust and Rebecca Taylor examine the responsibilities of college educators to resist conditions of epistemic injustice within their institutions. Pedagogy alone cannot bring about epistemic justice in higher education, for no individual epistemic agent can single-handedly transform their epistemic environment. The…

Bold interventions are needed to change racial disparities and unacceptably low STEMM completion rates at historically white institutions that have the resources to train a new generation of scientists with diverse backgrounds. Three university case studies were conducted on the Meyerhoff Adaptation Partnership, which sought to develop…

In this study, I focused on African-American women who have pursued and continue to pursue administrative roles at a predominately White institution in the Midwest. Using a phenomenology approach, that employed an initial questionnaire sent to various marginalized groups in the Midwest to women who fit the research criteria. After completing the…

This qualitative study focuses on the tenure experiences of Black women faculty who have attained tenure at Predominately White Institutions (PWIs) of higher education. Black Feminist Theory, Endarkened Feminist Epistemology, and Identity Taxation create theoretical lenses and frameworks for this study. Methodologically, this study uses sister…

The purpose of this Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was to examine how diversity is articulated via institutional diversity statements. Drawing on statements from 92 historically white institutions, the study examined both what institutions convey as significant via diversity statements and the subsequent consequences of such language. Guided by…

The Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) position has a unique responsibility to drive diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across college campuses, however, it does not award individuals serving in these roles an exemption from racial ostracism. In this study, the author investigates how anti-blackness prevents African-American CDOs from fulfilling…

Structured from a qualitative research design, this meta-synthesis explored the lived experiences and perceptions women of color hold regarding their leadership within higher education. The purpose of the study was to generate understanding of said experiences and examine women of color leadership persistence within higher education, especially…

Black staff working at predominately white institutions (PWIs) of higher education experience systemic workplace racism undergirded by higher education's deep connections to and reproduction of White supremacy and antiblackness. This phenomenological qualitative research study entails a literature review with historical, conceptual, and empirical…

This study presents the experiences of Latino/a faculty and administrators in Hispanic seminaries or departments at white-dominated higher education institutions. The narratives reflect that the underrepresentation of Latino leadership in Hispanic seminaries creates an environment of rejection with religious overtones. The concept derived from the…

In his Chair's address to the Conference on College Composition and Communication in 1996, Lester Faigley argued that one important consistency throughout the history of composition studies has been "that we have remained steadfast to the goal of literacy for equality" (p. 41). As Chair of the same Conference over two decades later, Asao…

The cross-racial collaborations of Black women and white individuals in the academy are fraught and complex, as their livelihoods are connected to larger socio-political structures and intersecting systems of oppression, namely race and gender (Crenshaw, 1989, 1990). In this study, I engaged in the research alongside three Black women, two white…

Colleges and universities appoint interim leaders to fill key leadership vacancies during periods of organizational transition and change. Although a widely accepted practice within higher education, there is limited literature related to the topic of interim leadership or on the experiences of those who navigate the role. Therefore, the purpose…

This dissertation sought to interrogate the ways in which White, rural students from West Virginia conceptualized diversity before, during, and since their transition to a large PWI in their home state. Using Critical Whiteness Studies and intersectionality as driving theory, student participants and I engaged in deconstruction of privilege…