Reimagining Academia: Lessons from Black M(other)Scholars during our duel with the dual pandemics

Abstract

Academia remains a patriarchal system, in which womxn’s work is undervalued, and the intersection of race and gender positions Black womxn uniquely. Some research has begun to explore how the dual pandemics compounded challenges for Black womxn in the academy. This is further complicated when considering Black womxn as M(other)Scholars. Through the dual pandemics of highly visible police brutality against Black bodies and the disproportionate toll of COVID-19 on Black communities, we offer our stories, as four Black M(other)Scholars, who experienced, mourned, and made room for ourselves and others to thrive during the dual pandemics. We share our stories knowing Black and white womxn have experienced and continue to experience life on different terms. This is also reflected in scholarship around MotherScholars and the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on our previous work rooted in endarkened feminist epistemology, we use autoethnographic sista circle methodology to capture how the dual pandemics provided both a reprieve from the antiblackness of academia and the opportunity to build community amongst other Black womxn scholars and our children. We center music in our storytelling, as music has served as both a balm and an expression of our spirit of resistance.