Call for Special Issue Manuscripts: “Diasporic Black Women: Global Insights for the Future of Higher Education”

Diasporic Black Women: Global Insights for the Future of Higher Education

Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education

2027 Special Issue, Volume 20

Guest Editors: Dr. Meseret F. Hailu & Dr. Jeana E. Morrison

The future of higher education requires insight from diverse stakeholders, including women of color. While Black women’s intellectual work is often marginalized, silenced, and co-opted (Patton & Haynes, 2018), we cannot ignore the power and privilege that we also embody as educators, researchers, and mentors living and working in the Global North. Knowing this, we aim to elevate the perspectives of Black women who are epistemologically committed to knowledge generation in and through the Global South (Morrison & Hailu, 2023; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2018). By having this geo-spatial and geopolitical focus, this special issue provides a foundation for an international understanding of Black women’s relationship to the academy and the work that we do (George Mwangi & Yao, 2020). Through intellectual projects such as this special issue, we can acknowledge the past, confront our present, and simultaneously look toward a more just future (Collins, 2022; Smith et al., 2021). This is especially needed considering the contemporary landscape of higher education: student enrollment is declining, the value of post-secondary credentials is questioned, and the professoriate continues to exclude marginalized people (Dorn et al., 2020). Now more than ever, it is imperative that we make room for fresh ideas, creative solutions, and joy in higher education by turning our attention to the intellectual brilliance and contributions of Black diasporic women across the world (Chinkondenji, 2022; Hollingsworth & Kakooza, 2024; Tichavakunda, 2021).

In this special issue, we will curate a collection of articles that focus on the theme of diasporic Black women’s theorizations about the future of higher education. We have an expansive view of Blackness, and we invite pieces wherein Black women are included (1) as researchers/participants currently living in the African diaspora1/Global South (countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania) and as (2) researchers/participants who were born in/immigrated from the Global South and/or currently live in the Global North (North America, Europe, and Australia).

Our rationale for this theme is our critical awareness of how gender has been used to limit opportunities and shape outcomes and experiences for Black women across the diaspora, especially Black women who are simultaneously experiencing other systems of domination, including class-based, geography-based, and nationality-based discrimination (Morrison & Hailu, 2023; Ntseane, 2011). As this status quo continues to be the case internationally, innovative and expansive solutions for threats to higher education are urgently needed. This is particularly true in a global climate rife with violence and political instability. According to the Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2023 was the most violent year on record since the end of World War II (Rustad, 2024). These conflicts spill over into higher education institutions and spaces, and both people and postsecondary infrastructure in multiple countries–including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gaza, Sudan, and Venezuela–have suffered as a result (GCPEA, 2019; Jones et al., 2022; Milton et al., 2023). As scholars and practitioners think about the future of higher education, it is imperative that the insights of Black women–especially Black women in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania–are included when imagining more emancipatory futures for higher education systems. As such, we solicit articles based on the following ten thematic areas:

• A Black feminist re-engagement/critique of foundational gender-focused social science literature that informs higher education research, such as: Acker’s (1990) article “Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations,” Connell’s (2013) book “Gender and power: Society, the person, and sexual politics;” and Mohanty’s (1988) article “Under Western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses.” We seek a re-engagement of such foundational pieces through an African diasporic lens.

• Postsecondary access and pathways for women students in refugee camps and informal settlements in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania

• Women’s (faculty, students, and staff) participation in higher education in conflict zones in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania

• Women’s (faculty, students, and staff) involvement in peacebuilding and security via higher education

• Gendered, informal learning spaces for adults, in the Global South.

• Peer student networks in doctoral education, especially in the Global South.

• International student mobility within the Global South.

• Humanizing faculty-doctoral student advising relationships that are responsive to space, place, and international (im)mobility

• Effective response to COVID-19-related educational disruption for women in the Global South.

• Emancipatory visions and aspirations for a race and gender-equitable future of higher

Manuscript Submissions

Manuscripts should be a maximum of 25 double-spaced pages, and submitted by June 15, 2025.  Please use APA style and 12-point Times New Roman font.  (Page length includes tables, figures, images, and references.) All manuscripts must be submitted online through https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/naspa_njawhe. 

 

Please include a cover letter clearly indicating why the submission should be considered for the special issue. For more information, or to discuss your idea in advance, please contact the guest editors:  Dr. Meseret Hailu ([email protected]) and Dr. Jeana Morrison ([email protected]). 

 

 For more information, or to discuss your idea in advance, please contact the guest editors:  Dr. Meseret Hailu ([email protected]) and Dr. Jeana Morrison ([email protected]). 

Timeline

• Deadline for submissions: June 15, 2025

• Selection of manuscripts for issue:  June 16-29, 2025 

• Manuscripts out for peer review: June 30, 2025 – August 15, 2025

• Finalize all revisions of manuscripts: October 31, 2026. 

References

Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), 139-158.

Chinkondenji, P. (2022). Schoolgirl pregnancy, dropout or pushout?: an Ubuntucentric re-construction of the education for student mothers in Malawi. Gender and Education, 34(6), 738-753.

Collins, P. H. (2022). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.

Connell, R. (2013). Gender and power: Society, the person and sexual politics. John Wiley & Sons.

Dorn, E., Dua, A., Law, J., & Ram, S. (2020). Higher education enrollment: Inevitable decline or online opportunity? https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/higher-education-enrollment-inevitable-decline-or-online-opportunity

Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack [GCPEA]. (2019). “‘All that I have lost: Impact of Attacks on Education for Women and Girls in Kasai Central Province,

Democratic Republic of Congo.” https://www.edu- links.org/sites/default/files/media/file/drc_kasai_attacks_on_women_and_girls.pdf

George Mwangi, C. A., & Yao, C. W. (2020). US higher education internationalization through an equity-driven lens: An analysis of concepts, history, and research. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research: Volume 36, 1-62.

Hollingsworth, J. D., & Kakooza, M. (2024). Is my hair neat?! A duoethnography of Black women’s cross-cultural socialization in academia. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1-13.

Jones, N., Abebe, W., Emirie, G., Gebeyehu, Y., Gezahegne, K., Tilahun, K., ... & Vintges, J. (2022, September). Disrupted educational pathways: The effects of conflict on adolescent educational access and learning in war-torn Ethiopia. In Frontiers in education (Vol. 7, p. 963415). Frontiers Media SA.

Milton, S., Elkahlout, G., & Barakat, S. (2023). Protecting higher education from attack in the Gaza Strip. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 53(6), 1024-1042.

Mohanty, C. (1988). Under Western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. Feminist Review, 30(1), 61-88.

Morrison, J. E., & Hailu, M. F. (2023). Black women abroad: Constructions of gender, race, language, and culture. Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education, 16(2), 137–157.

Ntseane, P. G. (2011). Culturally sensitive transformational learning: Incorporating the Afrocentric paradigm and African feminism. Adult Education Quarterly, 61(4), 307-323.

Patton, L. D., & Haynes, C. (2018). Hidden in plain sight: The Black women's blueprint for institutional transformation in higher education. Teachers College Record, 120(14), 1-18.

Rustad, S.A. (2024). Conflict Trends: A Global Overview, 1946–2023. PRIO Paper. Oslo: PRIO. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/92a7aad5-3572-4886-9e9c-8aa155f1d0f4/Conflict_Trends-2024_DIGITAL.pdf?inline=true

Smith, C., Davies, A., & Gomes, B. (2021). “In front of the world”: Translating Beatriz Nascimento. Antipode, 53(1), 279-316.

Tichavakunda, A.A. (2021). Black joy on white campuses: Exploring Black students' recreation and celebration at a historically white institution. The Review of Higher Education, 44(3), 297-324.