(Un)masking self in the ivory tower: An African herstory

Abstract

ABSTRACT From a critical autoethnographic perspective, this article records the herstory of a young African woman positioned as an international academic in the U.S. ivory tower. I rely on Dove’s [(1998). African womanism: An Afrocentric theory. Journal of Black Studies, 28(5), 515–539. https://do.org/10.1177/002193479802800501] African womanist theory and Afrocentric cultural frames to narrate and interpret my experiences. I critically navigate my intersectionality through cultural communication and autoethnography as I dance to tunes of apatampa to present a positioned, encultured, and embodied account of myself. As a corollary, I use different African features and methods of womanist engagements, such as storytelling, poetry, and proverbs, to share my experiences as a young African woman in a predominantly white institution (PWI). I share how this ussearch can be utilized to inform practice to increase the whistle volumes of African and international female faculty in U.S. higher education.