Virginia Tech was host to more than 400 talented, accomplished women who convened in Blacksburg for the sixth annual Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference.
The two-day conference held April 5-6, offered women-of-color faculty, university administrators, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduates a unique educational and professional opportunity to network, engage, and learn with peers from around the country. This marked the second year that the national conference took place at Virginia Tech, with attendees traveling from throughout the US.
“I’m thrilled that Tech has been willing to host it for the past two years,” said Vice President for Strategic Affairs and Vice Provost for Inclusion and Diversity Menah Pratt-Clarke. “I think we had extremely high-quality sessions and opportunities for women of color to connect, to support, and to empower one another.”
This year’s conference was bookended by keynote presentations from Maria Hinojosa of NPR’s “Latino USA” and “In the Thick” podcast, and Brittney Cooper, assistant professor of women’s, gender and Africana studies at Rutgers University, co-founder of the Crunk Feminist Collective and author of books, including the recent “Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower.”
The event featured the presentation of the Zenobia Lawrence Hikes Woman of Color in the Academy Awards. The awards are named for Zenobia Hikes, who served as vice president of student affairs at Virginia Tech from 2005 until her passing in 2008. Hikes helped unite the Virginia Tech community, especially in the hours and days following the tragic events of April 16, 2007.
This year’s Zenobia Lawrence Hikes Woman of Color in the Academy Award for teaching/research faculty was won by Joy Gaston-Gayles, associate professor in the College of Education at North Carolina State University, and the award for administrative/professional faculty was won by Assata Zerai, professor and associate chancellor for diversity at the University of Illinois.
Presentation of the awards was followed by a panel of women college presidents of color facilitated by Johanna Maes, senior instructor in the Multicultural Leadership Scholars Program at the University of Colorado Boulder.
The conference also featured an array of workshops and sessions on topics ranging from how to thrive when one is the only woman or person of color in a department, to pathways for professional development.
Cherrel Miller Dyce, an assistant professor of education at Elon University was one who attended the conference for the second year.
“I came for community, to be in community with other scholars of color, and to contribute my voice and research in lifting up the experiences of women of color in education,” said Dyce. “Our experience is different, unique, and nuanced. This is a place where we can speak our truth.”
Hinojosa jumpstarted the gathering with a fiery keynote about her journalism and experiences as a faculty member at DePaul University in Chicago. She spoke about the nation’s political moment and why it is so important for women of color to address their own needs to be effective for their students, many of whom look to them as role models.
“If we don’t practice self-care, we’re not going to make it, and we’re not going to be there for our students, who need us desperately,” Hinojosa said. “We are like lifelines to students, and that’s why this is important, because you need a lifeline, too. I hope I give you a little of that hope and stamina that we need.”
The panel of college presidents continued the theme.
Maes, who co-wrote the book “Journeys of Social Justice: Women of Color Presidents in the Academy” with Pratt-Clarke, facilitated the presidents’ panel as part of her second year attending the conference.
“It was a blessing on many levels because it enabled us to showcase these amazing women, putting a name and a story to a face. That is powerful,” Maes said. “It’s important for the academy to learn how different women-of-color presidents are versus the typical white president. They are the counter-story. It’s important to see how they operate, how they show up, what they’re saying, how they say it, how they communicate with people. These women are almost like the mother figures at their universities.”
The conference concluded on Friday, with Cooper addressing what she called “the academic brain trust — that’s what I see in this room.” She spoke about how she tapped into her rage — an emotion with which her students find deep connection — to find joy in the fight for social justice. That fight can be lonely, and so she spoke of the importance of building a network of peers, such as those who filled Latham Ballroom for the conference.
“Black women like myself are often the first generation to do everything in the family,” Cooper said. “The first to go to college, the first to graduate, the first to get a Ph.D. — these things I’m sure you share.”
Cooper called for self-care and a positive self-image as crucial elements for faculty to connect with students. That’s why the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference is so important: It places these women, many of whom may be the only women of color in their departments or among their peers and encourages them to seek mutual support and to tell each other, “You are good enough.”
“The work of social justice often involves anger, but I’m taking away from the conference the importance of eloquent rage, a righteous anger, a righteous indignation, and still having joy in the midst of it all,” said Pratt-Clarke. “I see the work of social justice and equality and equity as still a place of joy and joyful purpose, despite feelings of anger and rage.”
“It does one well to be in the presence of all these dynamic women of color,” said Reid. “There’s a certain energy here that you take with you. It fills you up.”
