“‘We especially welcome applications from visible minorities’: Reflections on race, gender and life at three universities” in Race, Ethnicity and Education, 18 (5), 589–610
This autoethnographic account documents and analyses university life as a racialised woman who has worked in both Canadian and American universities. The theoretical framework draws from critical perspectives on race, black feminisms and narrative and autoethnographic research methodologies. The study involves a range of data sources that provide sociohistorical and sociopolitical contexts in which to ground the Personal: academic writings on race and gender, university reports, email correspondence, relevant newsmedia artifacts, as well as personal written accounts, conversations with colleagues and life experiences. This article critiques the pervasive institutional practices of white and male privilege and gendered racism. It offers some suggestions to reshape disciplinary knowledge, curricula and the workplace for black and marginalised women faculty. It is hoped that the results and conclusions contribute to our understandings of life as it is lived in the margins of race and gender, and in this way, contribute to understanding black women’s experiences in North American universities.
Annette Henry is a Professor in the University of British Columbia’s Department of Language and Literacy Education. Her teaching and research include antiracist and anti-colonial pedagogies; Black feminist pedagogies; Teaching Caribbean students; teacher education; and critical oral histories.
Other publications from this author include:
- “Killing us softly with questions” in The Nuances of Blackness (2020)
- “What folks don’t get: How race, class and gender matter” in Colour Matters (2020)
- “Standing firm on uneven ground: A letter to Black women on academic leadership” in African Canadian Leadership. Continuity, Transition and Transformation (2019)
- “Diasporic reasoning, affect, memory and cultural politics: An interview with Avtar Brah” in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 36 (2), 243–263. (2015)
- “Reflection: Groundings – A framework for educational inquiry” in Afrocentric practice and education for human freedom: The through the years I keep on toiling: The selected works of Joyce E. King, 19–21 (2015)
- Critical Youth Studies Reader (2014)
- Taking Back Control: African Canadian Women Teachers’ Lives and Practice (1998)