Date of Award

8-22-2025

Date Published

September 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Writing Studies, Rhetoric and Composition

Advisor(s)

Aja Martinez

Second Advisor

Gwendolyn Pough

Keywords

Black Feminist Thought;Black women;classroom;Critical Race Theory;graduate students;qualitative research

Subject Categories

Arts and Humanities | Rhetoric and Composition

Abstract

Black women have historically experienced barriers in education and the traditional classroom space, facing visible and invisible walls that reinforce their silence, delegitimization, and harm. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine Black women’s experiences in the graduate classroom and use their voices to challenge the purpose and power of dominant structures—and talk back (hooks, 2014). Black Feminist Thought and Critical Race Theory were used as theoretical frameworks to better understand the unique experiences of Black women graduate students, help highlight their voices, and place their experiences and ideas at the center of analysis. To investigate this topic, I conducted semi-structured interviews with seven Black women graduate students in Rhetoric and Writing Studies doctoral programs, attending universities throughout the U.S. I used a qualitative grounded theory research design to collect and analyze data. After the data was transcribed and coded, four theoretical concepts emerged: Structural and Institutional Realities; Pedagogical and Classroom Dynamics; Graduate Student Experiences and Barriers; and Vision, Advocacy, and Survival. Participant’s experiences capture the exclusion, marginalization, and violence they have experienced in the graduate classroom, and academia at large. Moreover, findings from the study offers a few suggestions including the need for programs to recruit and retain Black faculty, implement more inclusive curriculum, offer reliable mentorship, interrogate cultural norms, and incorporate more diverse pedagogy practices. The study concludes that the classroom is a site of tension for Black women graduate students and this tension is reinforced by underlying systems and expectations that exist in and around the classroom space.

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Open Access

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