Negotiating Academic Learning and Research: The Spiritual Praxis of Graduate Students of Color

Abstract

Drawing on data collected in a qualitative study of racially minoritized faculty members, this article examines the challenges these faculty members faced in bringing different aspects of their spirituality into their scholarly work as graduate students. This article explores the questions: How do racially minoritized graduate students negotiate their spiritual identities and integrate their spiritual epistemologies and cultural knowledge into academic practices, and what challenges do they face in doing both? This article presents three salient themes: sacred subjectivity in student-focused research, spiritual praxis in the classroom, and new visions for inclusive spiritual expression in the academy. By focusing our analysis on study participants' strategies for resisting pressures to closet their beliefs, this article affirms the importance of legitimizing the spiritual epistemological perspectives of racially minoritized graduate students in creating a more equitable and diverse higher education culture.