Findings revealed underexplored reciprocities in Black feminist pedagogical delivery and engagement, which may advance culturally specific expressive writing and research methods, and offer culturally

The gap

Consensus across the literature

Supporting evidence — 4 representative gaps

• Motherhood and the Pursuit of a Doctorate as a Full-Time Housing Professional (2026) · doi

  Drawing from my lived experiences, I offer the following guidance to Black women pursuing doctoral study, and to the institutions, the supervisors, and the advisors who are positioned to support them. These insights are grounded in both my journey and in what research affirms about persistence, support, and culturally responsive practices. Black Women, This is For You! • Believe in your capacity to succeed in a doctoral program and know you are worthy of centering your personal and professional goals. • Intentionally build your support networks beyond family and work to include those who celebrate you and hold you accountable. • Choose programs and mentors that honor your whole self. • Protect your joy and peace and remember, as Lorde (1988) reminds us, self-care is an act of political warfare. Institutional and Supporting Cast, This is For You! Institutions and supporters play a critical role in fostering success. Family-friendly policies, culturally responsive mentorship (Bertrand Jones et al., 2015), and recognition of the emotional labor Black women contribute are essential to sustaining them in academic spaces. Developing intersectional professional development opportunities that affirm their full identities transforms advocacy into action, ensuring Black women can thrive, lead, and complete the journeys they begin. CONCLUSION When these actions are adapted, they can create opportunities and avenues for literature to be expanded about Black women’s experiences within post-secondary education and doctoral programs. The addition of these new narratives written from Black women’s viewpoints will increase the exploration and greater knowing of the intersections of race, parenthood, and work—for and by Black women and those who support them—to dispel misperceptions. Johnson (2021) emphasizes that personal stories of Black women navigating doctoral study at PWIs expose gaps in institutional 143 Volume 52, No. 3 • 2026Balancing Motherhood, a Doctorate, and Campus Housing Work When Black women share their narratives, they create knowledge that informs institutional reform and offers pathways for future scholars who will balance similar roles. support while revealing the social capital that sustains them, like family, spirituality, sisterhood, and self-belief. Furthermore, Brown & Grothaus (2021) illustrate the necessity of mentoring relationships that acknowledge cultural identity and validate emotional labor. When Black women share their narratives, they create knowledge that informs institutional reform and offers pathways for future scholars who will balance similar roles. Their autoethnographies speak directly to aspiring Black women doctoral students not merely as data, but as evidence that they, too, can belong, persist, and lead. These stories are scholarship, and they matter. This manuscript shared some experiences of being a Black mother, a first-genera- tion doctoral student, and a professional in HRL. Through autoethnography, I reclaim my narrative not as a story of burden, but of resilience, resistance, and persistence. I call for institutional change that honors the fullness of Black women’s identities and supports their academic and professional trajectories. In naming my truth, I hope to empower and affirm the truths of many others starting the doctoral journey, in their doctoral journey, or thinking about embarking on the doctoral journey as a partner, a parent, and an HRL professional. You can do it!  REFERENCES Adams, T. E., Holman Jones, S., & Ellis, C. (2015). Autoethnography: Understanding qualitative research. Oxford University Press. Berry, T. R., & Mizelle, N. D. (2006). From oppression to grace: Women of color and their dilemmas within the academy. Stylus Publishing. Bertrand Jones, T., Osborne Lampkin, L., Patterson, S. M., & Davis, D. J. (2015). Creating a “safe and supportive environment:”

  Keywords: black women doctoral support your professional institutional them journey experiences family self jones create narratives
• Fugitive Mentorship and Cultivating Expansive Futures: (2026) · doi

  As we share our collaborative autoethnography of advising BSU clubs in the American Southwest, we call in other participating research practitioners to share their knowledge of their hyperlocal context. We affirm that young people’s voices must be centered through youth-driven methodologies such as Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) (Domínguez & Cammarota, 2022). Furthermore, we agree with Jones and colleagues (2022) that future research ought to examine how Black youth spaces can cultivate socio-political awareness. We ultimately underscore the critical need for research-practice partnerships to evaluate the implementation of professional development and funding given to diversity club advisors (Parry et al., 2020).

  Keywords: youth share collaborative autoethnography advising clubs american southwest call participating practitioners knowledge hyperlocal context affirm
• Fugitive Mentorship and Cultivating Expansive Futures: (2026) · doi

  Our recommendations for stewarding Black Educational Futures are threefold: 1) Black representation matters to thriving BES; 2) systemic school implementation of racial literacy can improve culturally responsive mentorship; 3) Fugitive Mentorship must be relevant to the youth it aims to serve. We hope that, through our layered autoethnographic inquiry, we illustrate how to cultivate expansive Black Educational futures that disrupt systemic anti-Blackness (Sharpe, 2017). To begin, Black adult representation remains essential when mentoring youth of color. Research shows that school systems that intentionally implement hiring and retention practices for Black faculty reduce the racial battle fatigue (Pizarro & Kohli, 2020) and do not overburden them with the sole responsibility of leading affinity spaces (Stanley, 2025). Next, school systems can systematically implement racial literacy professional development to offer more culturally responsive mentorship, rather than replicating this type of Fugitive Mentorship in other educational contexts, which would go against the aim of this paper. While some educators might have had some prior experience with culturally relevant historical literacy (Mihammad, 2020) and racial literacy framework (Sealey-Ruiz, 2022), in recent community-based mentorship literature, non-Black mentors, who make a large majority of the volunteer base (similar to educators) report not having had adequate training to discuss topics around race and culture (Jones et al., 2022). To minimize racial liberalism (Oto et al., 2020; Sealey-Ruiz, 2022), we propose that administration and teacher education departments engage with racial literacy before beginning in-service teaching. Lastly, effective BSU advisors know how to listen to young Current Issues in Education, 27(1) 15 GERMAN, SMITH, BERNARD & WILKERSON: FUGITIVE MENTORSHIP people. We know youth already act as liaisons and consultants to their respective communities. By sharing our BSU advisors’ experiences, we hope to get closer to our goal of having Black youth leaders’ voices heard and respected. By listening to the youth who hold the future in their hands, we can disrupt anti-Blackness in educational contexts by Fugitive Mentorship: co- conspire, resist, and heal together.

  Keywords: black mentorship racial literacy youth educational fugitive school culturally futures representation systemic responsive relevant hope
• Mutual vulnerability and intergenerational healing: Black women HBCU students writing memoir (2019) · doi

  Findings revealed underexplored reciprocities in Black feminist pedagogical delivery and engagement, which may advance culturally specific expressive writing and research methods, and offer culturally specific methods to advance the healing of multigenerational traumas that impact Black women students.

  Keywords: black advance culturally specific revealed underexplored reciprocities feminist pedagogical delivery engagement expressive writing offer healing