Black Space : Negotiating Race, Diversity, and Belonging in the Ivory Tower / Sherry L. Deckman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Deckman, Sherry L., author.

Series:

American campus.

American Campus

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American college students--Massachusetts--Cambridge.

African American college students.

Kuumba Singers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (197 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, [2022]

Summary:

Protests against racial injustice and anti-Blackness have swept across elite colleges and universities in recent years, exposing systemic racism and raising questions about what it means for Black students to belong at these institutions. In Black Space, Sherry L. Deckman takes us into the lives of the members of the Kuumba Singers, a Black student organization at Harvard with racially diverse members, and a self-proclaimed safe space for anyone but particularly Black students. Uniquely focusing on Black students in an elite space where they are the majority, Deckman provides a case study in how colleges and universities might reimagine safe spaces. Through rich description and sharing moments in students’ everyday lives, Deckman demonstrates the possibilities and challenges Black students face as they navigate campus culture and the refuge they find in this organization. This work illuminates ways administrators, faculty, student affairs staff, and indeed, students themselves, might productively address issues of difference and anti-Blackness for the purpose of fostering critically inclusive campus environments.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Foreword

Introduction: How Do You Lift Every Voice?

Prelude: (Un)Safe Space and Racial Diversity in the Ivory Tower

Verse I: Being Black

Verse II: Staying Black

Bridge: Non-Black Members in the Black Organization

Chorus: Learning to Care

Coda: Lessons from the Safe Black Space

Appendix A: Interview Participants

Appendix B: Note on Methods

Acknowledgments

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-9788-2254-5

1-9788-2256-1

OCLC:

1287135782