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Reflections on Academic Trauma and the Resignation of Claudine Gay
For the past few years, I have noticed a trend in the news that I receive about Black women in academia. With every announcement of a new degree or position, there were almost always multiple stories of a death or dissolution. Therefore, I was not shocked last year after reading the headline “Two Black Women University Presidents Have Died” in the same year. I was also not surprised when news broke of the recent resignation of former Harvard president and Professor Claudine Gay.
While I don’t have an opinion on the circumstances surrounding the resignation, I agree with Dr. Gay’s statement that her resignation reflected much more significant issues in the ivory tower. Therefore, I’d like to share a blog post I wrote in 2020 regarding the discourse surrounding Black women in academia.
During that year, I started a series of posts on my academic blog called ‘Abolition and Academia,’ which focused on my dissatisfaction with educational institutions and offered solutions and pathways to healing for current and former academics. I hope these words…
