Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2024, Educational Leadership

This study explores specific examples of social pressures and performances Black women student affairs professionals have navigated, adapted, and challenged since the pandemic's beginning (2020) to the present era. While utilizing Black Feminist Performance Theory (BFPT) and radical Black subjectivity (hooks, 2015), this study centers on the narratives of 10 Black women in Midwest and Southern states who have worked in student affairs since 2019. These stories were used to reflect and emphasize the fears of many Black women who work within Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). I argue that many Black institutional staff have been encouraged to appease and perform for white audiences due to fear of isolation, consequences, and the threat of survival, which impact their well-being and livelihood. Additionally, this study explored how Black women define and work towards liberation from white dominance and influence while also creating space to reflect and (re)imagine Black freedom. Consequently, to secure this potential freedom, the Black pained body (Hartman, 1997) is centered within this study as a means to bring awareness to what binds the Black spirit and the liberating process of finding the confidence to shed the inauthentic character that many Black women professionals are pressured to accept and engage in.

Committee: Denise Taliaferro Baszile (Advisor); Ganiva Reyes (Committee Member); Érica Fernández (Committee Member); Thomas Poetter (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Education; Educational Leadership; Gender Studies; Higher Education; Personality; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, ED Policy and Leadership

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the leadership experiences of four African American women college presidents serving at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly White Institutions. Three main inquiries guide the research. First, how do African American women college presidents “make sense” of presidential leadership? In the same manner, how does being a “woman” and “of color” influence and/or inform their crafting of a presidential identity? Further, what are the strategies or mechanisms they employ or display, which enable them to “perform” the presidency?A triangulated, interdisciplinary framework, consisting of Black Feminist Thought, an invention of ethos and “performance” as theory, provides the study with its theoretical backbone. Methodologically, it borrows elements from traditional and critical ethnography, while relying on the techniques of interviewing and participant-observation. Both methods are used to solicit the personal and professional narratives and testaments of each woman. Initial findings from this study suggest that the four African American women “make sense” of presidential leadership by recalling familial expectations; being aware of their raced and gendered realities; entering into personal and professional role model- and mentorships; relying on faith; and, developing value systems. Despite the (mis)conceptions and perceptions documented generally in the research on Black women professionals, these women invent presidential identities and ethoi by identifying as change agents and committing to their vocational purpose. In the same manner, while they “perform” the presidency in the most “traditional” sense (i.e., writing and giving speeches), they also become their “performances” by employing numerous rhetorical strategies and mechanisms that have been historically linked to the African American female experience.

Committee: Ada Demb EdD (Advisor); Adrienne Dixson PhD (Committee Member); Jacqueline Jones Royster PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Gender; Higher Education; Minority and Ethnic Groups