Hush, We’re Here: Pre-tenured Black Motherscholars in Canadian Universities

A longstanding body of literature traces the experiences of Black faculty in Canadian universities. In Canada, Black professors face anti-Black racism, suspicion, and utter disregard. It is under such conditions that Black professors undertake review, tenure, and promotion processes. Although a dedicated body of Canadian literature examines Black faculty’s experiences with tenure and promotion, limited research centres the narratives of pre-tenured Black faculty engaged in institutional review processes. Particularly glaring is the paucity of literature exploring the realities of pre-tenured Black motherscholars navigating the third-year review. Structured as an open letter, this arts-informed autoethnography explores how pre-tenured Black motherscholars sustain their artistic approaches to qualitative inquiry while navigating the third-year review process. In the study, the author centres her own experiences as a Black mother and arts-based researcher at a Canadian university. The study draws on Endarkened Feminist Epistemologies, historical notions of hush harbours, and Endarkened storywork to further understand the distinct realities of Black motherscholars in higher education. The study highlights how pre-tenured Black motherscholars establish liberatory spaces within and beyond the academy. In these spaces, Black motherscholars commune, dream, and organize, all while undergoing institutional reviews and assessments. The methodological contribution of this paper is multifold. In this piece, readers witness: (1) hush harbours as methodological spaces; (2) the ethical use of redaction in qualitative inquiry; and (3) Endarkened storywork for data analysis.