Black Experiences in Higher Education: Faculty, Staff, and Students illuminates the narratives of Black faculty, staff, and students and how they navigate their professional experiences, confront the hidden curriculum and work to transform academia. As we think about the context of Black Lives Matter, intersections of race and gender, and what it means to be Black in America, there is a new consciousness and attention to the uniqueness of Black experiences in the world. This book calls attention to how Black folks are navigating their experiences within higher education. The book will present an overarching aim to delve into Black voices and experiences in higher education. Contributing authors hold varying roles of faculty, staff, and students, all sharing their experiences in higher education in the USA. In particular these scholars reflect on the challenges and opportunities within the three themes of mental health and wellness, mentorship and creating supportive spaces, and career experiences, trajectories and pathways. The aim of the variety of contributing authors creates a space to reveal unique Black experiences and voices, therefore contributing to the scholarly discourse on race in America, and in higher education, in particular.

Dissertating During a Pandemic: Narratives of Success from Scholars of Color examines the experiences of doctoral students of color writing the dissertation currently and those who successfully defended their dissertation after the onset of COVID-19 and subsequent shutting down of college campuses in March 2020. While we know that scholars of color experience many barriers to completing the dissertation process prior to COVID-19 such as being in racist academic environments and being engaged in research areas that may not be supported by predominantly White faculty, it is important to consider how scholars of color are managing the dissertation process during this pandemic. We approach this book from an asset-based approach where chapter authors are approaching both the challenges and opportunities they have experienced due to being a dissertation writer during the pandemic. Chapter authors also provide poignant feedback on how professors can be supportive to their needs as dissertation writers. One especially important contribution of this book is that our authors are from a variety of disciplines including: education, social work, psychology, African American studies, and sociology. Additionally, chapter authors are doctoral candidates (and recent graduates) at predominantly White institutions, historically Black colleges and universities, and online universities. Given the breadth of institution types each chapter will provide poignant suggestions for doctoral students across the nation as well as for faculty who are looking to better understand the dissertation writer experience to support their own students. Because of the novelty of COVID-19, little is known about how doctoral students engaged in writing the dissertation during COVID19 are adapting. Moreover, there is little information available for professors on how to support their doctoral students during these unprecedented times. Thus, Dissertating During a Pandemic: Narratives of Success from Scholars of Color is positioned to be a must read for professors looking to support their doctoral student advisees as well as for doctoral students who are looking for strategies to navigate the dissertation process during the pandemic and beyond.

Feminist Mentoring in Academia offers a varied collection of autoethnographic and research-based accounts of support, struggle, and resilience from the ivory tower. Contributors write about the moments in-between, where feminist mentoring initiates, renews, thrives, and sometimes struggles. The work presented in this book highlights how feminist mentoring happens between professor and student; junior faculty and tenured; and occurs repeatedly. Featuring contributions from scholars at varying points in their academic careers, the chapters of this book propose best feminist mentorship practices, disclose personal narratives, and critique traditional forms of mentoring with visions for feminist mentorship futures. Scholars of communication, feminist studies, higher education, and sociology will find this book of particular interest.

"The FLOTUS Effect" emphasizes the import of agency on the part of Michelle Obama in relation to her politics as evidenced in her positionality and presence as the first African American woman to serve as First Lady of the United States of America. Her occupation of a previously white space and place tended to frame her as an enigma in the American mind and media. Contributors reflect on Mrs. Obama's eight years in her ceremonial position, and the ways she chose to uniquely embody her role. Hence, the result is a volume that speculates upon her evolving legacy, and the likely "effects" of what it meant to be the first African-American woman to serve in the ceremonial, yet powerful, role of FLOTUS.

"The FLOTUS Effect" emphasizes the import of agency on the part of Michelle Obama in relation to her politics as evidenced in her positionality and presence as the first African American woman to serve as First Lady of the United States of America. Her occupation of a previously white space and place tended to frame her as an enigma in the American mind and media. Contributors reflect on Mrs. Obama’s eight years in her ceremonial position, and the ways she chose to uniquely embody her role. Hence, the result is a volume that speculates upon her evolving legacy, and the likely “effects” of what it meant to be the first African-American woman to serve in the ceremonial, yet powerful, role of FLOTUS.

Black Experiences in Higher Education: Faculty, Staff, and Students illuminates the narratives of Black faculty, staff, and students and how they navigate their professional experiences, confront the hidden curriculum and work to transform academia. As we think about the context of Black Lives Matter, intersections of race and gender, and what it means to be Black in America, there is a new consciousness and attention to the uniqueness of Black experiences in the world. This book calls attention to how Black folks are navigating their experiences within higher education. The book will present an overarching aim to delve into Black voices and experiences in higher education. Contributing authors hold varying roles of faculty, staff, and students, all sharing their experiences in higher education in the USA. In particular these scholars reflect on the challenges and opportunities within the three themes of mental health and wellness, mentorship and creating supportive spaces, and career experiences, trajectories and pathways. The aim of the variety of contributing authors creates a space to reveal unique Black experiences and voices, therefore contributing to the scholarly discourse on race in America, and in higher education, in particular.

Dissertating During a Pandemic: Narratives of Success from Scholars of Color examines the experiences of doctoral students of color writing the dissertation currently and those who successfully defended their dissertation after the onset of COVID-19 and subsequent shutting down of college campuses in March 2020. While we know that scholars of color experience many barriers to completing the dissertation process prior to COVID-19 such as being in racist academic environments and being engaged in research areas that may not be supported by predominantly White faculty, it is important to consider how scholars of color are managing the dissertation process during this pandemic. We approach this book from an asset-based approach where chapter authors are approaching both the challenges and opportunities they have experienced due to being a dissertation writer during the pandemic. Chapter authors also provide poignant feedback on how professors can be supportive to their needs as dissertation writers. One especially important contribution of this book is that our authors are from a variety of disciplines including: education, social work, psychology, African American studies, and sociology. Additionally, chapter authors are doctoral candidates (and recent graduates) at predominantly White institutions, historically Black colleges and universities, and online universities. Given the breadth of institution types each chapter will provide poignant suggestions for doctoral students across the nation as well as for faculty who are looking to better understand the dissertation writer experience to support their own students. Because of the novelty of COVID-19, little is known about how doctoral students engaged in writing the dissertation during COVID19 are adapting. Moreover, there is little information available for professors on how to support their doctoral students during these unprecedented times. Thus, Dissertating During a Pandemic: Narratives of Success from Scholars of Color is positioned to be a must read for professors looking to support their doctoral student advisees as well as for doctoral students who are looking for strategies to navigate the dissertation process during the pandemic and beyond.