Black women in academia have long experienced racism and sexism in higher education systems. The COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of anti-Black racism since 2020 have exacerbated these challenges, leading to increased burnout among Black women faculty. This study aimed to investigate the experiences, wellbeing, and needs of Black women faculty during and since the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and anti-Black racism. The study used interview data to investigate variables such as conflict, health, reappointment promotion and tenure, support, silencing, belonging, rest, housekeeping tasks of academia, and interactions with students and colleagues. The findings of the study suggest that Black women in academia are experiencing high levels of stress, burnout, and mental health issues due to the intersecting challenges of racism, sexism, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The study recommends the implementation of support systems and resources to help Black women in academia cope with and thrive in their academic environments.

In this article, we consider Black girls’ experiences as teenagers in Kentuckian school systems through an intertextual analysis alongside photovoice research. We ask questions to understand connections between bell hooks’ educational landscape, and co-researchers’ educational landscapes after 2020. Relying on hooks’ Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, we lay out the various means through which Black teenage girls understand their education through photography to read anti-Black girl systems of power and oppression in schools. Findings suggest that co-researchers’ critiques of their learning environments elicit powerful re-definitions of predominantly white learning institutions throughout our photovoice project. With additional findings, we present specific interventions that educators and administrators should provide to create Black girl safe spaces. The ways in which Black girls identify safe spaces in predominantly white schools allows us to conduct research that underscores patterns of marginalizing Kentucky’s Black girls and the brilliance they harbor in juxtaposition to their oppression. We conclude by calling readers to redefine the meaning and stipulations for identifying PWIs and creating Black girl safe spaces as pathways that educators, researchers, clinicians, and other stakeholders should embrace for Black girls to feel safe, comfortable, and free in Kentucky’s schools.

This mixed-methods study, grounded in the "ambition on the margins" framework, examines the political socialization and mobilization of Black female college students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Southeastern United States. Surveys and focus groups with 80 self-identified Black female undergraduates explored two research questions: How do these students engage politically? and What motivates their participation? Findings reveal that voting, primarily driven by family encouragement and ancestral obligation, is their principal political activity. HBCUs play a crucial role in fostering political awareness. While a reliable voting bloc, participants critiqued political messaging employing racial stereotypes and cultural tropes (e.g., rap music, HBCU bands), favoring authentic messaging focused on actionable change. Although representation matters, impactful policies were prioritized over symbolic representation. This study underscores the need for political communication that resonates with the lived experiences of young Black women, addressing systemic issues like economic inequality and student debt. It highlights HBCUs as vital spaces for cultivating political engagement and advocacy. By amplifying their voices, this research positions Black women as agents of systemic change, offering insights for effective engagement with this influential demographic.

Exploring the experiences of five undergraduate Black women at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), this study uses Black Feminist Thought (BFT) and Critical visual methodologies (CVM) to examine how through self- drawn photos view themselves as leaders. This study examines how the women view themselves from their peers and institutional leadership. Findings highlight themes of authenticity, servant leadership, and unapologetically being themselves in leadership roles. The study argues that visual elicitation, offers a rich, multifaceted understanding of Black women's leadership in higher education, providing a deeper appreciation for their contributions to both campus life and leadership in general.

Traditional STEM Education Research and Black Feminist Epistemology represent contrasting paradigms in how education researchers produce and understand knowledge. As Black women STEM education researchers conducting research on the undergraduate experiences of interruption by Black women in STEM (UPLIFT project), we acknowledge and prioritize our own subjectivity, personal experiences, and standpoints in the research process. In this paper, we discuss the ways we commit to anchoring our STEM education research in the methodological principles of Black Feminist epistemology.

Historically, women of African descent had limited entry into U.S. colleges, contributing to the emergence of women’s historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Today, little is known about Black students’ reasons for attending women’s HBCUs. Adopting a Black Feminist Thought framework, the current research examined the relationship between Black women’s racial and gender identity centralities and their race- and gender-related reasons for attending a women’s HBCU. Survey results from one hundred and thirty-four incoming students demonstrated the interaction between racial and gender identity centrality and intersectional gendered racial identity centrality predicted students’ desire to attend a women’s HBCU for race-related and gendered race-related reasons. These findings provide important insights into the identity-related factors that motivate Black women’s college choice.

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) space is a producer of many Black teachers. Out of this space comes both beautiful and burdensome experiences that add to the richness of the HBCU experience. Through poetic renderings, I use personal reflections through phenomenological exploration to highlight my own lived experience as a Black woman teacher educator in the HBCU space. The ultimate goal of preparing (1) culturally responsive urban educators, (2) reflective practitioners, (3) collaborative stakeholders, (4) professionals who consistently meet high expectations, and (5) educators who remain authentic is explored.

Black Deaf women have a history of holding space for themselves and leaving their marks on the world. We explore the experiences of five Black Deaf women who did just that by attending four different Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as undergraduate students. Using a narrative methodology and a Black Deaf Feminism framework, counternarratives unfolded that more deeply explore why these Black Deaf women chose an HBCU, how they navigated, and what we might learn about making HBCUs more open and accessible to future Black Deaf students.

This study examined the motivations and justifications of IPV engagement among 125 Black women (Mage = 20.32, SD = 1.68) attending Historically Black Colleges/Universities. Two research aims assessed: 1) perceived motivations and acceptable justifications for IPV; and 2) relationships between the frequency of violence and contextual variables. We hypothesized that more IPV experiences would result in more behavior justification and increased sexual risk behavior. Additionally, we expected more IPV experiences would correlate with more psychological violence, and constrained mate availability. Findings indicate significant relationships between increased IPV and justification of violence in relationships and increased sexual risk behavior. Furthermore, more IPV experiences resulted in increased psychological violence and less perceived mate availability. The Discussion and Implications sections emphasize the need to focus on motivations, justifications, and context of IPV involvement as a way to design culturally responsive prevention and intervention programming for Black women on HBCU campuses

Aligned with the aims of the Journal of African American Women and Girls in Education, this thematic issue “address the unique realities” of Black women and girls within the HBCU environment. This issue invites Black women experiences from various spaces and places on HBCU campuses and in the HBCU community into a collective conversation. We bring these scholarly, practical, conceptual, theoretical, and philosophical explorations together to (re)discover, center, and (re)define the experiences, sensemaking, and world-making practices of Black women within the HBCU context.