Socializing mammies? Examining graduate student engagement of Black women graduate instructors

Abstract

Existent research on Black women faculty suggest that student and colleague expectations of the roles these faculty should assume, including the stereotypical "mammy," create environments in which Black women are forced to overload advising, service, and mentoring, working themselves to exhaustion in lieu of producing research and publications (Griffin & Reddick, 2011). Yet, little is known about how Black women allocate their time to teaching, advising, and other professional development activities while they are graduate students. In this session, the presenters will describe findings from a large-scale sample of engagement survey data collected from graduate student instructors (GSIs) to explore self-perceptions of teaching experiences of Black/African American women GSIs. This session should benefit current and prospective graduate students, faculty, and practitioners who provide teaching and professional development resources for graduate student instructors.