2025 Theses Doctoral

(Re)membering: The Dimensions of Black Joy for Black Women Educators

Bell, Jacobe

This dissertation explores the dimensions of Black joy for Black women educators (BWEs) through the theoretical frameworks of Endarkened feminism and Black affect theory, using a conceptual model called the Endarkened Wheel to capture how joy manifests across spiritual, temporal, and spatial realms.

Employing Endarkened Journey Mapping methodology and (re)membering circles, the research engaged BWEs as co-collaborators in creating journey maps, poems, and collective meaning-making sessions conducted via Zoom. Analysis of individual poems and composite poetry revealed that Black joy for BWEs is embodied in (re)membering—reclaiming identity and rejecting dominant narratives that diminish Black women's humanity—while functioning as both resistance to oppression and celebratory affirmation of Black identity.

Key findings show that participants experienced joy through ancestral connections, community belonging, creative expression, and authentic self-representation. The research contributes to educational scholarship by generating new understandings of Black joy that foster emergent strategies beyond anti-Black dystopian education systems, offering theoretical and practical insights for institutional transformation that centers BWEs' wholeness and providing reflective questions for BWEs to nurture their joy across all dimensions of experience.