Crosstalk Resource Guide

“We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation is us. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters, and our community, which allows us to continue our struggle and work.” -The Combahee River Collective1

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” -Audre Lorde2

Our special issue Crosstalk: Graduate Students of Color Reflect on Lessons Lived and Learned in the Academy is an effort to create a dialogue among graduate students of color for sharing ideas, affirmation, and guidance. To date this is the largest collection of essays by graduate students of color, including an additional 39 original essays on our website.

We invited graduate students of color to voice their experiences working, navigating, and matriculating in higher education. And now those same authors have come together to create a resource guide of books, programs, groups, and scholarship opportunities that have helped or uplifted them during their time in graduate school. While an appearance in this list is not an official endorsement from our journal, we do hope this collection can be the springboard for creating more robust and productive experiences in academia. As the Combahee River Collective reminds us, sometimes “the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation is us.” Thus, we present this resource guide to our readers with sincere thanks to our graduate student authors without whom none of this impressive collaborative work is possible.

We consider this a living document that will be updated regularly. We invite all our WGFC contributors to submit their own suggestions for resources to wgfc@ku.edu.

Crosstalk: Graduate Students of Color Reflect on Lessons Lived and Learned in the Academy is available now on Project MUSE and JSTOR, with additional essays available on our website.

Further Reading

The Black Academic’s Guide to Winning Tenure—Without Losing Your Soul, by Kerry Ann Rockquemore and Tracey Laszloffy (Lynne Rienner Publishers 2008)

Degrees of Difference: Reflections of Women of Color on Graduate School, edited by Kimberly D. McKee and Denise A. Delgado (University of Illinois Press 2020)

Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia, edited by Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. Gonzalez and Angela P. Harris (University Press of Colorado 2012)

Presumed Incompetent II: Race, Class, Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia, edited by Yolanda Flores Niemann, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, & Carmen G. Gonzalez (University Press of Colorado 2020)

Programs

  • Building Future Faculty Program is a two-and-a-half day all-expenses paid workshop for doctoral students and post-doctoral scholars who are interested in pursuing academic careers and who are committed to promoting diversity in higher education.
  • GirlTrek is a national health movement that activates thousands of Black women to be change makers in their lives and communities through walking.
  • Institute on Teaching and Mentoring for underrepresented minority PhD scholars in the country
  • Intersectional Qualitative Research Methods Institute for Advanced Doctoral Students from The University of Texas at Austin Latino Research Institute provides practical lessons in professional development to intersectional scholars in their pursuit of successful research careers.
  • NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program
  • NWSA Women of Color Leadership Project is designed to increase the number of women of color students, staff, and faculty members within the field of women’s studies and women’s centers and, consequently, to have an impact on the levels of participation and power by women of color in the field of women’s studies and women’s centers, in NWSA, and in PAD and WCC.
  • NYU Steinhardt Faculty First-Look invites talented scholars of color and others underrepresented in the Academy who are completing their PhD, EdD, or other relevant terminal degree for a glimpse into what it takes to prepare for future faculty careers, particularly in disciplines and field represented within the Steinhardt School.

Grants and Fellowships

  • EGA Environmental Fellows Program is a national fellowship seeking to diversify the environmental and conservation philanthropic sector by supporting the career aspirations of graduate students from traditionally underrepresented groups.
  • Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship
  • Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) is an undergraduate-to-graduate bridge program designed to broaden participation of historically underrepresented communities in the atmospheric and related sciences.
  • The Switzer Fellowship offers one-year fellowships to highly talented graduate students from diverse academic and personal backgrounds in New England and California whose studies and career goals are directed toward environmental improvement and who clearly demonstrate leadership in their field. 
  • University of Michigan Environmental Fellows Program is a 12-week summer fellowship opportunity that seeks to diversify the environmental field by cultivating the career aspirations of master’s and doctoral students from historically underrepresented groups by connecting students to work opportunities in environmental nonprofits, grant makers, and government sectors. 

[1] Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light and Other Essays. Mineola, NY: Ixia Press 2017 [1988]: (130).

[2] The Combahee River Collective, “A Black Feminist Statement.” In Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought, edited by Beverly Guy-Sheftall, 232-240. New York: The New Press, 1995 (234).