Tight spaces, contextualizing the journey of my experiences: black feminist scholars negotiating power, navigating oppression, and resisting domination while dismantling this old house

The purpose of this study is to "make sense" of how Black Feminist Scholars negotiate power, navigate oppression, and resist domination while dismantling the institutional structures of the academy in order to engage in liberatory practices. Utilizing Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Feminism, and Critical Discourse Analysis, I conduct a secondary and textual analysis of the following works: Sister Outsider (2007) by Audre Lorde, and Teaching to Transgress (1994) by bell hooks. Because it serves as the foundation to Black Feminist Scholarship, I utilize Black Feminist Thought (1990, 2009) by Patricia Hill Collins as the central Black Feminist Epistemological framework for this inquiry project. The words within these texts have multiple meanings within global, social, political, and historical conditions and are interwoven within psychological, sociological, and historical frameworks that are not bound by fixed apparatuses. Utilizing these selected works as primary sources, I generate a framework for Black Women to successfully negotiate their multiple marginalizations (tight spaces) within hegemonic institutions of domination--the academy. Many additional works from these and other scholars are interrogated and included in this project; however, these specific writings serve as the foundation for exploring areas of convergence and divergence within my own professional and personal lived experiences. Critical Discourse Analysis provides the researcher with clear connections between the use of language and the exercise of power (Thompson, 2002). By engaging in Critical Discourse Analyses of these texts, I believe the intersectionality of their radical feminist rhetoric(s) presented will provide intellectual, spiritual and pedagogical constructs for Black Feminist Scholars who serve in Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) and particularly, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Finally, by engaging this inquiry project; it is my hope new knowledge is not only consumed; but transformational knowledge is produced and utilized as a roadmap for other Black women in the academy as they journey along their path of the unfamiliar