Thriving in Higher Education: Uncovering Institutional Counter-Stories Through Abolitionist Feminist Mentoring shares personal narratives that highlight the critical role of mentoring in academic success—especially for women and people of color on the tenure track. Institutions often use mechanisms of control to shame those who challenge hegemonic norms and expectations. These shaming practices serve to silence and isolate victims, contributing to the hidden and ongoing nature of these mechanisms. In this book, scholars share experiences of microaggressions, racial battle fatigue, and institutional retaliation, revealing the hidden costs of advocating for justice and truth within academia.
These nineteen chapters, authored by multidisciplinary educators—some in collaboration with their mentors or mentees—serve as both guidebooks and cautionary tales necessary to navigate the potential perils of higher education through mentoring relationships. These brave counter-stories present tales of joy, resistance and solidarity for scholars deemed outsiders, troublemakers, boat-rockers, critical scholars, truth tellers, and the like.
While the work of dismantling institutional oppression is often costly—bringing stress, fear, and even trauma—this book stands as a beacon of hope. It offers readers not only validation and solidarity, but also practical strategies for building empowering mentoring relationships rooted in care, resistance, and community. Thriving in Higher Education is both a call to action and a testament to the resilience of those who dare to thrive in spaces not built for them.
Table of Contents:
Foreword - “Always here, but taken for granted”: The Dedication and Unappreciation of Overworked Femtors of Color; Cheryl E. Matias
Chapter 1. I Wish I Woulda Known: Mentorship, Mobbing, and the Academy: Lessons in Power and Resistance; Jennifer L. Martin and Jennifer N. Brooks
Chapter 2. Making Space in Narrow Rooms: The Role of Intersectional Mentoring on Program Completion; Jendayi Mbalia and Raquel Farmer-Hinton
Chapter 3. The “Art” of Mentoring Otherwise: Troubling, Agitating and Flourishing in the Academy; Lindsey Abernathy, Stacie Warner, and Lucy E. Bailey
Chapter 4. Performative Inclusion: Vignettes of Dehumanization, Resistance and Mentorship; Ahlam Rahal, Cynthia Bruce, Késa Munroe-Anderson, and Lynn Aylward
Chapter 5. Centering Joy and Community in Doctoral Student Mentoring; Asia S. Thomas and Michelle Zoss
Chapter 6. Mentoring for Freedom: Lessons from Doctoral Students of Color and the Mentor who Helped them Succeed; Lizette Aguilar, Franchesca Ho Sang, and Sherry L. Deckman
Chapter 7. “Transformational Feminist Mentoring as Radical Love in Chicanx Studies”; Corina Benavides López
Chapter 8. Protecting the Unprotected: The Power of Peer Mentorship in a Professional Counterspace for Black Women; Chenelle S. Boatswain
Chapter 9. When We All We Got, Gatherings of Solidarity: Black Feminist Mentoring in Liberatory Research Teams; Taryrn T.C. Brown and Robin Phelps-Ward
Chapter 10. ISOLATION: A Critical Race Perspective on Journeying Through Academia When Mentorship is Absent or Not Enough!; Frederick V. Jr. Engram
Chapter 11. A Journey Through Black Femtoring and What the Academy Can Learn about Humanization; Marla Goins and K. Melchor Quick Hall
Chapter 12. Critical Black Feminist Mentoring: Implications for Student and Faculty Success and Well-Being in Academic Spaces Post-COVID; Dyann C. Logwood and Sadaf Ali
Chapter 13. Mentoring as Acts of Resistance and Reimagining: The Reflective Testimonios of Multiple Generations of Women Leaders in Higher Education; Katrina Struloeff, Kimberly Sterin, Karena Escalante, Sherri Manson, and Haley Rose Kowal
Chapter 14. Swimming with the Sharks: Survival and Thriving with Academic Mentoring; Sun Y. Gu, April M. Jones, and Stephanie Anne Shelton
Chapter 15. Thriving Through Counter-narratives of Hope, Love, and Joy: Reflections on Abolitionist Approaches to Queer/Feminist Mentorship; Trixie G. Smith and Matthew B. Cox
Chapter 16. “We Are Each Other’s Bond": Abolitionist Feminism Peer Mentorship As Healing and Sustaining Praxis for Black Women Doctoral Students; Kiana Willis, Jaminque Adams, Bri’Ann Price, Laetitia Adelson, Brittney Kilgore, and Lastasia Ramsey
Chapter 17. Sis, You Good? Mutual Mentorship as Care: Centering Well-being Among Black Women Scholars; Jhanae E. Wingfield, Laura Porterfield, and Lynnette Mawhinney
Chapter 18. Mentorship Beyond Borders: Cultivating (Counter)Spaces of Wholeness for Faculty, Students, and Professionals from International Backgrounds; Yi Xuen Tay, Karren Gunalan, Milad Mohebali, and Eva Faith Sosoo
Chapter 19. Critical Mentoring in the Hyphen: Reciprocal Connections Through a Shared Asian American Identity; Robin Brandehoff, Daranee Taychachaiwongse Teng, and Amie Ha
