Season 2: #2 - Ravynn Stringfield, Black Girl Does Grad School

Topics Discussed in this EpisodeMentors often see paths for us before we see them for ourselves.What is Black Girl Magic?Graduate students often do not know what they are getting into, and the community built around Black Girl Does Grad School has helped Black women undergraduates and Black women graduate students find information and support.Like Black Girl Does Grad School, Contingent Magazine is creating a space to publish voices that are marginalized by higher education.We need more spaces for people that the academy refuses to make space for--and creating our own spaces is critical.The importance of having supportive advisors and mentors.The inspiring work of Ethnic Studies Rise in demonstrating the importance of ethnic studies.The frustration that tenure committees fail to recognize why scholarship in ethnic studies matters.Graduate student unionization efforts are taking place across the country, not just at high-profile institutions like Harvard.There is no reason why graduate students should not be given living wages and adequate healthcare.Universities are not providing appropriate pedagogical training for graduate students, and that must change.Prestige cultures clash with equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives, rather than recognizing that diversity is a necessary pre-condition to quality.Black graduate students and graduate students of color are the people who have the ability to change the system and are unstoppable.While there are downsides to the internet, there can be pockets of freedom and liberation there too.Reading--particularly new writing in conversation with those of the ancestors--helps us understand that we are in a lineage, and that if we have found ways through problems in the past, we will again.Resources Discussed in this EpisodeJohns Hopkins University PressRavynn StringfieldClaudrena HaroldAndra Gillespie#BlackGirlMagicBlack Girl Does Grad SchoolContingent MagazineMark ReyesBill BlackErin BartramLiz LoshHarvard graduate student unionizationEthnic Studies Rise#LorgiaFestJessica Marie JohnsonAudre LordeAlice Walker