SUNDAY 7 APRIL 2019 – UWI TODAY
15
BOOKS
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.
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 womenwho 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.
RACE, GENDER
and the
GLASS CEILING FOR SCHOLARS
New book focuses on the struggles and solidarity of
black women in the university system in the Caribbean and US
B Y D I X I E - A N N B E L L E
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.
“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’.”
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.
Dr Talia Esnard
PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM
