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April 2019
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Since its release in August 2018, Black Women, Academe, and the Tenure Process in the United States and the Caribbean has had 652 chapter downloads and has been acquired by 99 universities. Dr Esnard is delighted by the response. The work has been evolving for years, its origins tracing back to the beginning of Dr Esnard’s career. In the field of sociology she found the opportunity to make sense of her existence. She fell in love with “that critical perspective on the social that is so central to who we are as human beings”. She embraced the “springboard to do research, to think of myself, to theorise what is going on in our own context, to make sense of my own existence and to help others who are trying to negotiate that specific context”. Her research interests were also deeply personal. Her mother is an entrepreneur; whose experiences have also influenced her broader body of work on women, work, and organisations, which extends to examinations of female entrepreneurs and women in higher education. Dr Esnard’s personal background also serves as inspiration. In her office surrounded by marks of her identity - pictures, flowers, and the St Lucian flag – she reflects on moving to Trinidad and Tobago. “You grow up with taken for granted notions of who you are,” she recalls, “that conversation about the importance of race and racism and the practices around that in (specific) contexts was never something that came on the table”. However, these understandings have been expanded through her own training, research, collaborations, and networks. In fact, she and Dr Cobb-Roberts began to network with other women who also shared their experiences around working in the academy. The researchers examined three groups: African American women in academia, Caribbean women in the region, and Caribbean-born women working within higher education institutions in the United States. The stories they heard moved the authors to evolve from “just focusing on tenure to looking at how identity is also embedded within the experiences of black women”. Their insights helped them challenge the notion that all black women are the same; even though their experiences across contexts say otherwise. While the way the women were viewed differed across contexts, these perceptions/stereotypes affected their experiences within the academy. The sometimes volatile race relations in the United States lead to difficulties for those based there. Dr Esnard heard accounts of intensification of open racism and micro-aggression; which were often compounded by stereotypes related to gendered racism. Black women in the US writing about their experiences of systemic oppression in the university found their research being dismissed. She notes that mechanisms of power seem to be in place to try to silence voices raised in protest. Dr Esnard noted that in the Caribbean, Black women were differently positioned based on the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and colour. Their struggles and experiences within the academy therefore unfolded differently. So too is the case of Caribbean migrants working in the US academy who struggled with the multiple binds of race, gender, nationality, and ethnicity. Dr Esnard speaks to the importance of providing a voice to those facing these institutional struggles/challenges in her work. As a result, the book expresses “the depth of the struggle that those women had around their identity and how they experienced those journeys around tenure”. The work also addresses issues related to migration, stratification, identity, and resistance, which are captured through their discussion on the struggles, strength, survival and success of these women. Through her writings, Dr Esnard is striving to show how these women are not isolated though they are experiencing some degree of marginalisation. She reveals that her work also “celebrates spirituality and the response through networks, their support in their communities, their families, (and) the church”. As she continues building this network, Dr Esnard hopes to foster this sense of community, so female academics can feel supported and strong enough to make their contribution within academe. Even when they are isolated, they can know their “sisters” are behind them. Dixie-Ann Belle is a freelance writer, editor and proofreader. |
For women contemplating the sometimes intimidating world of academe, Dr Talia Esnard has a heartening message. “You are not alone”. Dr Esnard of UWI’s Sociology Unit (Department of Behavioural Sciences) in the Faculty of Social Sciences has spent the last few years researching the experiences of women in the Caribbean and the United States and recently published her findings in a book co-authored by Dr Deirdre Cobb-Roberts of the University of South Florida.