Academia Unplugged: Understanding the Intersection of Gender and Race in the Trajectories of Black Women Academics at UKZN

This study sought to explore the career trajectories of Black South African women academics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted at five UKZN campuses. Participants were invited to recount their lived experiences in the academy, which continue to include political vicissitudes of race and gender. Existing scholarship on challenges faced by Black women is palpable; the South African landscape is distinctive, with complex intersections from the oppressive apartheid state followed by the 2004 post-apartheid higher education transformation. Prominent themes that developed, when examining race and gender, included institutional culture, the old boys' network 1 role overload and academic bullying. The theoretical framework that underpinned this study is social constructivism with a precise focus on intersectionality. Intersectionality provided context to the racial and gendered experiences of women in the academy. The South African government recognises intersectional experiences