The session will review research on Black women’s experiences as undergraduate and graduate students in higher education, particularly at predominantly white universities; integrate a mentoring model and resistance strategies developmentally for this age group with attention to social, psychological, and political factors that emerge on and off campus; honor the ethnic, class, religious and sexual diversity among Black college women; and provide case studies for application.
Black Women United, part of ADVANCE’s Mutual Mentoring Grant Award program and Black Women Faculty, is an initiative that seeks to build and maintain a network of Black women peers and increase the advancement of faculty and drive institutional transformation to create environments where diversity is encouraged and supported. Last year, Black Women United worked to develop community among tenure-track and non-tenure track Black women and librarians. To grow and carry forward the program’s work, Black Women United now looks to expand its on-campus network to include Black women who work in staff and administrative positions at UMass Amherst, as well as continuing to connect with Black women who are new additions to the campus.