Art “shall be by us, for us, about us, near us.”
W.E.B. Du Bois
As storytelling is an art, I consider narrative research an art as well. In my dissertation Disappointed but not Surprised: A Critical Narrative Inquiry of Black Women’s Doctoral Experiences in Agricultural and Life Sciences, I had the honor of telling the doctoral stories of six (including myself) Black women doctoral candidates. The (re)telling others’ stories, as well as one’s own, must be done delicately and intentionally.
Who is telling your story? How is it being told?
Who needs to hear the story?
Who gets to decide whose story is told?
Why I started this site:
Through my work, I want to center the voices of Black women who go unheard and are silenced. I want this to be a space where we gather, strategize, celebrate, and uplift each other. I hope to share stories of Black women in agriculture and help us find each other. Due to the extremely low numbers of Black women faculty, I often wonder where the Black women in agriculture went after graduation. Did they graduate? Are they in industry? Were they pushed out into other departments? Out of school all together? I have questions. You may too.
Let’s explore those questions together.
Let’s build community together.
In Solidarity,