Author:
(1) Tiffany N. Younger, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA ([email protected]).
Table of Links
3. Whiteness as an Institution
5. The Academic Plantation Field
8. Imagination through Research
10. Collaboration as Imagination
11. Conclusions and References
8. Imagination through Research
As I enter my role as an early career researcher, I enter ready to center Black women’s lived experiences in all my work. I believe Black women’s narrative is essential information for pushing toward liberation and overall economic justice. Black women are unique; they make up 70% of primary/sole heads of households in the United States (Price et al. 2020). Yet, most of our work on economic disparities and health disparities is studied through a race lens. These race-centered methods center on a cis-hetero patriarchal approach and perspective in research and interventions. This approach lacks substance and true centering on the lived experiences and needs of Black households and communities. A true racial justice approach includes gender at the center. I plan to use my time as a scholar working with Black women across the country to build a data bank of our lived experiences and desires. I plan to use my imagination to create new research methodologies that center joy, imagination, and creativity. Too often, Black women are overly researched in what we call “trauma porn” for the sake of data which results in more money for the institution. Furthermore, they are rarely compensated for their worth and value in participating and are left with a USD 25 gift card and a broken heart. My desire is for my research to be a space of refuge for Black women to come and just BE.
This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY 4.0 DEED license.
