When Will the Joy Come? : Black Women in the Ivory Tower -- An Authors Panel, on Thursday, March 7, 2023 from 4:00-6:00pm (ET) featuring Co-authors Abena Ampofoa Asare/Stony Brook University, Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine/Stanford University Center for African Studies and Michelle Thompson/Resistant Vision Coaching and Consulting, LLC. Moderated by Crystal Fleming/Stony Brook University.

Zoom registration required. Please click here to register. Registration deadline March 6.

Read the book introduction here.

Moving beyond questions of resilience, labor for others, and coping, When Will the Joy Come? focuses on the journeys of over thirty Black women at various stages of their careers. Join the authors and editors in a panel discussion about how Black women navigate academia and create, sustain, or pursue joy in the midst of adversity. 

Authors and Panel Participants:

Abena Ampofoa Asare, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Africana Studies and History at Stony Brook University. She is the author of Truth Without Reconciliation: A Human Rights History of Ghana (UPenn, 2018) and co-editor of When Will the Joy Come: Black Women in the Ivory Tower (UMass, 2023).

Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine, Ph.D., is Associate Director of the Center for African Studies at Stanford University. She is co-editor of When Will the Joy Come? Black Women in the Ivory Tower (2023); author of The Persistence of Slavery: An Economic History of Child Trafficking in Nigeria (2021); and won the 2021 Association for the Study of Worldwide African Diaspora prize for her article in "Marriage Certificates and Walker Cards: Nigerian Migrant Labor, Wives and Prostitutes in Colonial Fernando Pó," in African Economic History. She has published articles in Journal of West African History, Radical Teacher, and Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology and is currently guest editor for the theme “Retrospectives on Child Slavery in Africa” in Genealogy. Chapdelaine also has several chapters in co-edited volumes and is working on her next book, Embrace Black Joy: How Empathetic Teaching Empowers All Students.

Ashley D. Clemons, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of African American Literature at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She earned her Ph.D. in English at the University of Florida and was a Cheryl A. Wall postdoctoral associate at Rutgers University. Ashley’s research focuses on contemporary African American literature, Detroit literary and cultural studies, speculative fiction, lynching, and Black archival practices. A William A. Elwood Fellow, Ashley employs the archives in her book project entitled, A New Red Record: Examining the Social Ecology of Lynching in Major U.S. College Towns.

Nyasha M. Guramatunhu Cooper, Ph.D., is an award-winning leadership educator, facilitator, and speaker who specializes in personal, team, and organizational leadership development rooted in cultural humility, global mindset, and a comprehensive understanding of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Nyasha is a passionate learning and development consultant, helping corporate and nonprofit leaders and teams diagnose learning needs and design transformative learning programs to meet organizational goals. Additionally, Nyasha has facilitated team retreats, professional development programs, and capacity-building sessions for clients across industries. Nyasha served as Associate Professor of Leadership Studies at Our Lady of the Lake University, Associate Professor of Leadership Studies at Kennesaw State University, and adjunct faculty at Gonzaga University.

Kristian Contreras, Ph.D., (She/Her/Hers) is both a diversity, equity, and inclusion administrator and interdisciplinary education scholar whose praxis is rooted in transnational Black Feminist Theory. Her work focuses on honoring the ways in which Black women survive, create, love, learn, and resist despite the presumed deficits ascribed to our socio-political identities. Kristian’s dissertation project, “#NotYourMammyStudy”, is a love letter to Black women and gender non-conforming folks who are often dismissed as knowledge producers and relegated to the margins of American academia. She is proud to serve the National Women’s Studies Association as its Interim Director.

Tiffany Monique Quash, Ph.D., describes her mission in life as, “[l]earning to swim is a human right.” Her research focuses on the intersectionality of race, gender, class, and one’s historical relationships with swimming and higher education. As a former collegiate swimmer and USA Swim Coach, Dr. Quash works to improve the perceptions of one’s Black body in an aquatic space by listening to the stories of other Black swimmers. Dr. Quash’s dissertation, “Phenomenal Black Mermaids: The Experiences of Black Womxn Collegiate Swimmers”, prompted conversations on the experiences of Black Womxn Collegiate Swimmers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and primary white Institutions (pwis). Outside of her research and publications, Dr. Quash is the Qualitative/Survey Research Methodologist for American University in Washington, D.C. in the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning.

Heather Inez Scott, Ph.D., is an educator committed to demystifying leadership and advancing educational equity who lives by the mantra, leadership is service. She serves as Assistant Dean for SUMMIT Inclusive Leadership Curriculum and Co-Curriculum Programs, at Agnes Scott College and has been awarded numerous fellowships to advance research in inclusive excellence and leadership. Dr. Scott holds a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Educational Leadership from Mercer University, a Master of Education Degree in College Student Affairs Administration from The University of Georgia, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre from Agnes Scott College.

Kimberly M. Stanley, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies in the School of Cultural and Critical Studies at Bowling Green State University. She is currently working on her manuscript, Pulling Down the House and Tearing Up the Yard which examines the discursive constructions of Black masculinity within the Black press, 1920s–60s. She received her PhD from Indiana University–Bloomington in 2015 with dual degrees in history and American studies. Dr. Stanley is the caretaker of her daughter as well as a four-year old grandson.

Michelle Dionne Thompson, J.D., Ph.D., is the Founder and C.E.O. of Resistant Vision Coaching and Consulting, LLC. She works with women in academia and law to achieve their personal and professional goals by ensuring that have more pleasure in their professional and personal lives. She is currently working on her monograph, Resistant Vision, about the descendants of Jamaica’s Accompong Maroon community in 19th century Jamaica.

Cassandra Young, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Sam Houston State University. Dr. Young's primary areas of researching is human trafficking within the Black community and gender-based violence.