Background knowledge and epistemological access: Challenges facing black women in a SET scholarship programme

Black women are disproportionately impacted by chronic illness and are significantly more likely to experience severe morbidity and mortality as a consequence of pregnancy and childbirth.1, 2 As seen in a myriad of stories on maternal death and "near misses", Black women often experience maltreatment in clinical settings.3-5 With rising national media and scientific attention to the depth of racial inequities, Black maternal health has emerged as a priority for government and private funders.6-9 Providing financial support for maternal health research and programming is necessary, but insufficient, in eliminating disparate outcomes. There must be intentional, sustainable investments in the people best able to understand: Black women. Absent from the current landscape is a robust, well-supported cadre of Black maternal health scholar-activists who combine scientific and policy knowledge with the socio-cultural expertise that accompanies lived experience. Federal research institutes and private sector funders in the United States have acknowledged preventable inequities and have dedicated resources to identify causes, mechanisms of influence, and solutions for reducing disparate outcomes.7, 8 However, the conceptualization, design, and conduct of these studies (as well as funding decisions to support them) occur primarily among White researchers, which plausibly limits reductions in inequities.10 Specific investments in the educational trajectory of Black women are urgent and necessary to further enhance the quality, diversity, and impact of the maternal child health (MCH) field. The Public Health and MCH workforce needs to be further diversified with Black women scholar-activists because they are also culturally representative of the very populations at the greatest risk to experience maternal and infant health disparities. For example, Black women are 3.2 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related deaths compared to their White counterparts, and these disparities increase with age to 4–5 times more likely.11 Simultaneously, research demonstrates that when Black newborns are cared for by Black physicians, their mortality rate as compared to White infants is cut in half.12 By increasing the MCH workforce to include Black women scholar-activists and health care providers, the likelihood for improvement in health inequities increases. The goal of this commentary is to provide: (1) a brief overview of challenges Black women encounter on the path to and within science careers, (2) examples of successful approaches used to overcome these challenges, and (3) an urgent call to action for the field to commit to the training and development of Black women scholars in public and maternal health with the goal of eliminating maternal health inequities. In a similar manner to how structural racism and sexism produce adverse outcomes in labor and delivery,13-15 these same mechanisms also produce unfavorable outcomes for Black women in academia. At every level of the professional path to a career in scientific research, Black women consistently face bias: unwarranted and seemingly unavoidable experiences that make it more challenging for them to enroll in and graduate from school. For example, Black women describe experiencing isolation, invisibility, exclusion, pressure to continuously prove themselves worthy, a lack of mentorship, and a lack of sponsorship throughout scholarship.16 In addition, after graduation, they are often met with structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal challenges in obtaining, managing, and remaining in research-focused academic and other scientific positions.17 Obstacles include exclusion from collaborative opportunities, questioning of credentials and expertise by students and colleagues, criticism of their chosen outlets for publication, extra service requests and additional mentoring burden.18 Hindering the progression of Black women into high level leadership positions also presents barriers to the mentorship of burgeoning Black female scholars, thus continuing this pernicious cycle. Many training programs have been used to improve graduation and retention rates among Black students in higher education. These programs are of particular importance due to the evidence that Black students' experiences on college campuses have a significant impact on their academic longevity.19 For Black college students, factors such as the level of faculty support, availability of research-based programming, and feelings of institutional connectedness and belonging have dramatic effects on their personal and academic development and matriculation.19 The Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County is an example of a training program that has successfully increased the numbers of Black undergraduate college students who succeed in science, mathematics, and engineering.20 Meyerhoff students were more than 10 times as likely than the historical African American sample to attend graduate school in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, and almost two times as likely to attend medical school.20 Raising Achievement in Mathematics and Science scholar and similar programs at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are used to improve retention and graduation rates among minority students specifically in the STEM fields.21 A study at Winston-Salem State University found that prior to the implementation of these training programs, graduation rates for full-time students were 17.8% in 2008 and for STEM majors it was 9.3%.21 With the programs in place, graduation rates increased dramatically. The Raising Achievement in Mathematics and Science scholar program participants had a 98.8% graduation rate over 4 years and 100% of the 2009 scholar cohort graduated in STEM and were enrolled in either MS/PhD graduate programs or professional schools.21 Spelman College also employs several programs to orient and support Black women students in STEM careers. Spelman has the Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement training program, which supports the career pursuits of women and underrepresented minorities interested in biomedical research.22 In addition, between 2015 and 2019, Spelman College was ranked by the National Science Foundation as the number 1 institution of origin for Black PhDs in STEM disciplines.23 These types of programs and the contributions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's) to the Black female scientific workforce emphasizes their importance and necessity in contributing toward the development and advancement of Black women in research and advocacy. The W. Montague Cobb/National Medical Association Health Institute (also known as The Cobb Institute) is an organization that focuses on improving health inequities and addressing structural racism through research, education, and mentorship.24 The Cobb Scholars Program was launched in 2016 for senior residents, fellows, postdoctoral scientists, or early-stage investigators that come from underrepresented groups and are interested in biomedical and behavioral research.24 The scholars receive mentorship in leadership and research from interdisciplinary senior fellows which provides for collaboration and coaching across sectors to enrich their experience. Predominately White institutions can also help advance this goal. For example, the Pathways for Students into Health Professions program, housed within the University of California, Los Angeles campus, focuses on supporting underrepresented minority undergraduate students in MCH professions through the provisions of faculty mentorship, paid internships, and learning opportunities through various seminars.25 Although the program is not specifically built for Black students, it does prioritize students coming from non-dominant racial and ethnic groups, and research has found that students who completed the program were significantly more likely to report an interest in MCH topics and careers when compared to pre-enrollment.25 Many mentorship and training programs are open to those coming from other non-dominant racial and ethnic groups, as well as multiple gender identities.26 However, Black women often face different and distinct challenges as compared to their Black male counterparts or women of other racial backgrounds.27 Thus, there is a critical need to focus on the unique training and mentorship needs of Black women in academia. To bolster impacts within the MCH field, it would be useful to develop and implement programs to support Black women in their matriculation in public health, social sciences, and health care graduate programs with a focus on MCH research. There are a few graduate programs designed to support Black women in health care and health sciences that can be adapted for scholar-activists. For example, the Association of Black Women Physicians offers the Sister-to-Sister Mentoring Program that provides mentorship to Black women physicians, residents, and medical students.28 The program, Black Girl White Coat, is a social media mentorship initiative that hopes to provide further representation for groups that have been historically marginalized and oppressed.29 In addition, the ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Project of Jackson State University is a STEM mentorship program designed to support and empower Black women scholar-activists as well as provide a mentorship pipeline for early career scientists.30 Each of these programs aim to cultivate community and camaraderie among women who frequently, by nature of their racial and gender identity, are isolated in academic and professional settings. By adapting these mentorship programs to accommodate the needs of aspiring Black maternal health scholars, we can expand the support of early career professionals beyond undergraduate trainings. The profound impact of intentional investment in the form of mentorship, academic skill building, and providing opportunities for advocacy in the next generation of leaders cannot be overstated. This common thread among the following programs remain at the crux of the case for increased financial and programming support dedicated to the academic and career development of Black maternal health scholars. HBCU's must be central in the creation of a pipeline of leaders and scholars from historically underrepresented communities trained to work toward health equity in maternal health. For the past few years, Health Resources Services Administration through the Maternal and Child Health Bureau has formed an Alliance with 10 HBCU's to enhance the resources and expertise of faculty and students in HBCU's to address health inequities in MCH populations.31 The Alliance meets monthly to discuss strategies to strengthen research, outreach, advocacy, and services and has recently presented recommendations to the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. The Charles Drew University's Black Maternal Health Center of Excellence is one of the promising new programs underway that has been designed to address the persisting birthing disparities that disproportionately impact Black birthing people in Los Angeles County and the local Charles Drew community.32 The initiative names racism as a root cause to the disproportionately higher rates of infant and maternal death for Black birthing people countywide.33 In response to growing maternal morbidity and mortality rates in the state of Georgia, The Morehouse School of Medicine launched the Center for Maternal Health Equity in 2019.34 Their approach to tackling maternal health inequities is multifaceted; the Center utilizes research, workforce training, community engagement, and policy advocacy to improve reproductive justice.34 There is a paucity of evaluated programs tailored to meet the needs of Black women scholar-activists. However, many of the programs that currently exist offer foundations and frameworks that can be augmented to fit the needs of Black women and students within the MCH fields. The Diversity Scholars Leadership Program at the Boston University School of Public Health Center of Excellence in MCH is designed for students from underrepresented minority communities during their public health graduate studies in MCH.35 The National Birth Equity Collaborative is a Black-led organization that serves as a hands-on training program for promising scholars in the field.36 The Collaborative recruits interns from across multiple public health disciplines with experience in research, policy, training, advocacy, and community-centered work, with a commitment to reproductive justice and advancing birth equity.37 Founded in July 2020 during the dual pandemics of racism and COVID-19, The Maternal Outcomes for Translational Health Equity Research (MOTHER) Lab at Tufts University School of Medicine was created with two main goals: (1) to train, mentor, and engage bright scholars of color and White allies; and (2) to provide a research and training space to ensure scholars are supported as they prepare to go into their respective fields to dismantle systemic racism.38 Through a keen focus on the development of research skills, advocacy, and leadership among its students, the MOTHER Lab provides a framework for the development of maternal health scholars that can serve as model for other research labs housed in schools of public health or medicine. The MOTHER Lab is a unit within the newly formed Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice that houses faculty, staff, and students with a dedicated interest in addressing maternal health inequities. This center would contribute to immense progress in filling current gaps for mentorship, research, and sustainable change in this field.39 Research has shown that mentorship for students of color in White spaces are especially beneficial and can become a positive predictor component to their academic and professional futures; this center would provide training, research, and mentorship opportunities for scholars and providers in the field of Black maternal health equity.40, 41 Additionally, the Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice and the MOTHER Lab scholarly program for maternal health students are founded and run by Black female scholars with lived experience, thus representing a unique opportunity to engage and train the next generation of leaders. Finally, policy agendas such as the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021 (suite of 12 bills proposed in Congress), provide new and exciting ways to support the development of scholar-activists at the local, national, and state level that are dedicated to eliminating maternal mortality and morbidity in Black women.42 These 12 bills address current Black maternal health disparities through numerous distinct methods, but prominently include expanded funding for research on the topic and diversifying the MCH workforce as important methods. One of these bills (Protecting Moms Who Served Act of 2021) has been signed into law, while parts of several others have been partially incorporated in the proposed Build Back Better Act (Data to Save Moms Act, Kira Johnson Act, Maternal Health Pandemic Response Act of 2020, Perinatal Workforce Act, Protecting Moms and Babies Against Climate Change Act, and the Tech to Save Moms Act).43 Unique obstacles encountered from secondary school and throughout graduate education contribute to a lack of adequate representation of Black women in public health. This ultimately leads to a lack of lived experience and scholarship of scholars from communities most affected by the Black maternal health crisis. Modeling the success of other heavily invested pipeline mentorship and training programs, increased support of burgeoning Black maternal health scholar-activists may help mitigate this issue. Furthermore, existing policies and proposed legislation to diversify the public health workforce create the platform needed to build out the investment in Black women scholars who can lead the movement for maternal health equity. The authors have no funding to report.

Black women’s experiences in predominately white doctoral programs are often shaped by deficit narratives, suggesting that internal factors such as motivation, self-efficacy, and identity issues lead to academic failure. Black women frequently report experiences of gendered racism when enrolled in predominately white programs; however, they still earn degrees at consistently high rates. Most literature exploring Black women’s educational experiences focuses on undergraduate students and factors contributing to their lack of persistence or incompletion. This qualitative study aimed to better understand how Black graduate women succeed in the face of oppression. This article utilizes Black Feminist Thought, specifically the concepts of the “outsider within” and “self-definition,” to analyze Black women’s experiences in doctoral programs at predominately white institutions (PWIs), emphasizing the importance of uplifting their voices and experiences. This study offers novel narratives of academic persistence and success constructed from qualitative interviews. Findings demonstrate that Black women consciously create support networks, self-motivate, and redefine their experiences to protect their psychological health and persist in achieving their academic goals. Finally, this study concludes with implications of this study for practice, research, and policy.

Black girls and women are regarded as one of the most vulnerable populations of students in academic settings. The research that highlights their academic experiences is generally deficit-based and does not emphasize models of success. The recognition of their educational accomplishments is often lacking in the body of knowledge and scholarly literature. Instead, a continued focus on their stigmatized group connection and at-risk status are present in research discourse. This retrospective grounded theory study aimed to move the current discourse to a strengths-based perspective focused on academic success. Intensive interviews were conducted to examine the academic experiences of twelve Black women. The emerged theoretical model posits that persistence leads to academic success and is facilitated by parental, psychosocial, and interpersonal factors. The model may guide those interested in supporting the academic retention and success of Black girls and women.

Black women have participated in American higher education for over a century. Despite formidable professional and personal barriers, they have made significant advances. Many have reaped the benefits of their contributions. This article discusses the history and status of Black faculty women, describing strategies they have used to overcome internal and external challenges. It addresses critical issues such as managing career and family, establishing support systems, and negotiating tenure and promotion. It also offers suggestions for restructuring their career development to help them develop strategic professional and personal skills that can ensure their survival and achievement in the academy. The history of Black women in the United States can best be described as a struggle for survival and identity coupled with the need and desire to protect and support the family. Black women of today have emerged from what Hudson-Weems (1989) terms a tripartite or threefold shroud of oppression consisting of racism, classism, and sexism. Notwithstanding these barriers, which typically have been coupled with limited resources and low socioeconomic status, Black women as a whole have shown great resilience, and many have achieved great strides. The African proverb, She who learns must also teach, echoes the importance that historically has been attached to Black faculty women's efforts to share their knowledge with others regardless of any opposition or challenges they may have faced. Black women, though the most numerous of faculty women of color in institutions of higher education in the United States, accounted for only 6.43% of all full-time faculty among the ranks of assistant, associate, and full professors in 1996, barely up from 6.23% in 1986 (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2000). Roughly half these women are employed in the nation's historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and most of the remainder teach in community colleges. Only 1% of Black faculty women teach full-time in four-year majority institutions across the country (American Council on Education [ACE], 1993). The decade from 1981 to 1991 saw this group losing ground in their efforts to gain tenure on college and university campuses, dropping from 58% to 56% of those achieving this goal (ACE, 1993). Traditionally, over half of all Black women doctorate recipients choose academic employment, but the numbers are declining. Today, fewer Black women doctoral recipients nationwide are choosing academic employment, and many of those who do enter the academy eventually leave to pursue careers in business, industry, and the professions (Gregory, 1999). Teevan, Pepper, and Pellizzari (1992) have argued that many faculty women leave academe because of family responsibilities; they further contend that those who remain often produce less scholarly work. My own earlier study (Gregory, 1999) and a study by White (1999) confirm that Black women too often reject positions in higher education because of family and community responsibilities. Despite these reservations and reversals, Black women have a rich tradition of employment in U.S. education at all levels. Many have sought careers in the teaching profession because of a desire to make a difference in the lives of others. Compelling evidence suggests that Black faculty women can have a profound impact on the lives and perceptions of students. Numerous studies by Black scholars such as Blackwell (1983), Brown (1988), and Gardiner, Enomoto, and Grogan (2000) have cited lack of mentoring as one major reason why colleges and universities have had difficulty recruiting and retaining Black and other non-Asian American minority students. Their work has shown that many Black students perceive the absence of Black faculty members as paralleling their current low status and future outlook on campus. Blackwell (1983) has found that the number of Black faculty members at a college or university is the most important predictor of enrollment and retention rates for first-year Black students and of the total number of Black student graduates. …

Notwithstanding the social gains of the post-apartheid dispensation in South Africa, the country remains an unequal society in terms of race, class, gender and socioeconomic status. In this chapter, we provide an overview of access to success and widening participation in higher education (HE) in South Africa. Our thesis is that open distance learning (ODL) has the potential to empower the previously marginalized majority African populations by equipping them with requisite HE qualifications, and thereby moving them up the value chain. The authors explore the challenges of access and widening participation in HE by unpacking the historical nuances of access to it in South Africa. The authors explore the ideological foundations of conceptions of access, participation, and success by teasing out the notion of ‘epistemological access’. According to the South African philosopher of education, Wally Morrow, merely providing access to HE does not assure ‘epistemological access’. The authors argue that ODL can potentially create an enabling environment for the previously marginalized majority of Africans, not only to access HE in big numbers but also to have ‘epistemological access’.

The present study explored motivating factors and sources of interpersonal and institutional support related to the academic persistence and success of self-identified lower-income Black women attending predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Data were drawn from interviews with a sample of 12 Black undergraduate women. Our analyses suggest that participants: (1) drew on positive academic experiences within and outside the classroom; (2) focused on short-term goals and long-term ambitions of upward social mobility and career success; and (3) considered academic persistence a form of resistance against deficit-based narratives of Black womanhood. Authors discuss implications for higher education policies and practices related to Black women’s academic success.

Black women suffer from a persistent disparity in breast cancer mortality after controlling for prognostic and sociodemographic factors, suggesting that differential receipt or efficacy of treatment may contribute to their poorer outcomes. Black women are more likely to experience delays in diagnostic workup and initiation of treatment, but it is not known whether i) timeliness of subsequent care is also impacted, and ii) racial disparities in time to treatment initiation and completion persist among black and white women with comparable clinical and sociodemographic characteristics. The Carolina Breast Cancer Study Phase III is a large population-based cohort of North Carolina women newly diagnosed with breast cancer. This study was restricted to black and white women undergoing surgery for the treatment of nonmetastatic disease. We investigated mean differences in the distribution of time from diagnosis to earliest surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation treatment (treatment initiation) and once started, time to treatment completion (treatment duration) by race. Only treatment-oriented surgeries excluding biopsies were included in this analysis, and last or definitive surgery was defined as the final treatment-oriented surgery occurring prior to recurrence and within 18 months of diagnosis. Cumulative incidence curves were used to graphically examine the distributions of time to treatment initiation and treatment duration, and general linear models were used to estimate crude and adjusted mean differences in time to treatment initiation and duration between black and white women. We also conducted stratified analyses to examine racial disparities by age and stage at diagnosis, hormone receptor (HR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positivity, treatment pathway (surgery only, surgery plus chemotherapy, surgery plus radiation, or all three modalities), marital status, education level, income, and insurance type. A total of 1,328 black and 1,331 white women met study inclusion criteria. Overall, black women had an average of 3.68 additional days to treatment initiation and 34.26 days longer treatment duration than white women, for 37.94 days longer total treatment time (95% confidence interval (CI): 34.21-41.67). Adjustment for clinical and sociodemographic factors resulted in a greater estimated mean difference in time to initiate treatment (4.04 days, 95% CI: 3.08-5.00), while it attenuated the mean difference in treatment duration towards the null (9.07 days, 95% CI: 6.82-11.32). Black women experienced significantly longer time to initiate treatment and treatment duration in nearly every stratum of clinical or sociodemographic factor examined. Black women with stage II or III tumors had significantly longer time to initiate treatment than white women (4.50 and 7.84 days, respectively), and after starting treatment, treatment duration was approximately 25 days longer for black women with stage I and II disease. Black women undergoing radiation and/or chemotherapy had longer time to initiate treatment and significantly longer treatment durations. Having a college education or higher or being insured through Medicaid were associated with the greatest mean differences in time to treatment initiation comparing black and white women. Younger age at diagnosis, HR+ or HER2- disease, being unmarried, having less than a high school education, and being uninsured were associated with the greatest mean differences in treatment duration by race. Overall, black women experienced longer intervals between diagnosis and treatment initiation and greater treatment durations after controlling for clinical and sociodemographic factors. Racial disparities were more pronounced in examination of treatment duration, suggesting that interventions to improve care coordination and timeliness should be targeted at high-risk groups. Citation Format: Sophie E. Mayer, Melissa Troester, Stephanie B. Wheeler, Andrew Olshan, Lisa A. Carey, Jessica Tse, Katherine E. Reeder-Hayes. Temporal patterns of breast cancer treatment initiation and completion among black and white women in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr PR11.

Objective: This study examined the extent to which stigma-related concerns about mental health care account for the underuse of mental health services among low-income immigrant and U.S.-born black and Latina women. Methods: Participants included 15,383 low-income women screened for depression in county entitlement services who were asked about barriers to care, stigma-related concerns, and whether they wanted or were getting mental health care. Results: Among those who were depressed, compared with U.S.-born white women, each of the black groups were more likely to report stigma concerns (African immigrants, odds ratio [OR]=3.28, p=.004; Caribbean immigrants, OR=6.17, p=.005; U.S.-born blacks, OR=6.17, p=.06). Compared with U.S.-born white women, immigrant African women (OR=.18, p

Introduction: In memoriam: bell hooks, 1952–2021

Black women’s racial, ethnic, and indigenous histories and cultures in the United States and the diaspora are inextricably linked to historical legacies of survival and triumph. Black women’s unique place and space within the United States undergird who they are as individuals and collectively as Black women. Whether Black women acknowledge or disrupt it—the pervasiveness of Black women’s oppression does not disappear when they pursue higher education. Black women (learn to) understand how they make meaning of their identities and identity development as Black women across their lifespans and contexts. Some Black women (re)define who they are, some thrive and build community, others experience detrimental costs, and still, some experience all the above at different points in their lifetime. They navigate who they are in relation to their pre-collegiate socialization experiences (e.g., familial/communal upbringing, understanding of history, identity saliency). These pre-collegiate experiences influence how Black women engage and interact with others as they move into and through their tertiary environments. Collegiate contexts and environments vary—community college, single-sex, predominantly or historically white institutions (PWI or HWI), minority-serving institutions (MSI), public or private—and so too do the institutional agents who interact with and educate Black women (e.g., faculty, staff, and administrators). Through these interactions with others, Black women have often been rendered invisible or hyper-visible, meaning they are not considered in institutional decision making or tokenized for being “the only” or “one of few” in their academic discipline. Black women’s experiences are often conflated with white women when discussing gender or sexism, and Black men when discussing race or racism. Critical examination of Black women’s experiences requires one to name the situatedness of Black women within the context of institutionalized structures and systems. In other words, examination of Black undergraduate women must include critical and intersectional perspectives that overtly problematize practices and policies that sustain marginalization and perpetuate gendered racism against Black women.

<em><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-GB">This paper provides a review of literature which aims at problematizing the concept ‘epistemological access”, a fairly under-researched topic in South African education. Morrow’s distinction between formal access (institutional access) and epistemological access (access to the goods distributed by the institution) is used as a conceptual framework. We argue that the meaning of the concept ‘epistemological access’ as Morrow intended </span><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">was borne out of a particular political need that arose in higher education; the need to democratize access to higher education. The dearth of literature on the concept “epistemological access” and its meaning for access to basic education, especially foundation phase schooling, therefore warranted this literature review.</span></em>

Higher education institutions strive to ensure that their faculty are representative of the diverse students they serve. The importance of faculty diversity is particularly important in engineering, which is often dominated by white men. In South Africa, race remains contested 26 years after the end of apartheid, and the majority Black African population continues to be marginalized in political, economic, and knowledge enterprises. Black women represent 90% of the female population in South Africa. However, Black women are scarcely represented—and sometimes absent—in engineering academia. In this chapter, I argue that Black women’s career choices are influenced by their higher education experiences, which signal to Black women that they do not belong in higher education spaces. Using evidence from qualitative interviews conducted with 18 Black African women engineers in South Africa, I highlight how Black women experience higher education as racialized and gendered, discouraging them from pursuing academic careers. These race-gendered experiences need to be understood in the historical context of higher education and engineering in South Africa and in the remnants of an apartheid past that continue to impact everyday decisions of Black African South African women pursuing engineering degrees. The chapter concludes with implications and considerations for higher education institutions and engineering departments as they work to recruit and retain Black women in engineering academia.

Racial Differences in Stillbirth Risk Factors in Women Who Experienced Stillbirth During 2016

For centuries, Black women leading thinkers such as Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Phillis Wheatley, and Anna Julia Cooper have taught Black women that what counts as being literate has always been tied to social, political, economic, and historical contexts. The same reality is true for Black girls today. The social and academic success and well-being of Black girls in school contexts cannot be achieved without educators. Literacy educators are in a particular position to engage the literacy and literary traditions of Black girls and womanhood to help their students combat the harsh realities they may face. Additionally, Black girls deserve literacy practices that are designed to advance their academic success, identity development, sociopolitical consciousness, and joy. This edited volume features the research of literacy and English educators who work with practicing teachers, pre-service educators, and Black girls and women. Their research traverses the multiple literacies of writing, comprehending literature, digital media, and community engagement. The authors in this volume draw on their collective yet individual experiences as Black women scholars and teacher educators to share ways to transform the identity development of Black girls within and beyond official school contexts. To this end, each author connects their thoughtful work to the Black Girls’ Literacies Framework.

The concept of epistemological access, formulated by Morrow (1994; 2007), has been highly influential in higher education. It has been widely used in the sense of moving beyond physical or formal access to meaningful access to the “goods” of the university. An academic literacy approach acknowledges the complexity of literacy practices at university level. According to this approach, students need to master disciplinary literacies in order to learn and engage with knowledge (Lea and Street 1998; 2006). Epistemological access, social justice and academic literacies have been widely researched in the South African higher education field. This conceptual article explores the relationship between epistemological access and the development of students’ academic literacies to enhance social justice within the South African higher education context. We draw on related literature and our current experiences as academics to critique current institutional practices aimed at addressing the development of academic literacies and promoting student success. We argue for greater attention to be paid at institutional and faculty level to enhancing epistemological access and social justice. This article ends by putting forward a number of propositions towards strengthening student epistemological access and academic literacies development in higher education from a social justice perspective.