The Unchosen Me: Race, Gender, and Identity among Black Women in College

Acknowledgments

The writing of this book initiated, in many ways, an ongoing, transformative process. To the 30 women whose stories are represented in this book, I hope that the sisterhood fostered during the course of this research provided a safe haven, or at the very least a place to speak—a place to harness your own power—because you all have strength and a power that will transform society. I know this because you transformed me. As a theoretical concept, the Unchosen Me was born on a hot summer morning in a small, stuffy classroom on a college campus where I met with other like-minded folks to discuss the philosophy of Jürgen Habermas and his critique of George Herbert Mead. What then became my doctoral dissertation, luckily for the readers of this book, has changed significantly. Yet I must thank those people with whom I discussed this project in those early days and who nurtured my idea, reading drafts as the research developed. A special thank-you goes to my dissertation committee—Deborah Faye Carter, Phil Carspecken, Edward St. John, and Quincy Stewart—who asked the difficult questions, supported my work, patiently read far less well-crafted drafts of this manuscript, and challenged me to be a better scholar and thinker. Your scholarship inspires me, as does your commitment to social justice. This research project was graciously funded by an ASHE-Lumina Dissertation Fellowship. I am grateful both for the financial assistance this fellowship offered and for the networking and mentoring the program provided. I do better work for having been in this program. Additionally, this project was funded by the Office of Institutional Development and Student Affairs at Indiana University under the leadership of Charlie Nelms, whom I thank for his faith in my work. Thank you to my editor at the Johns Hopkins University Press, Ashleigh Elliott McKown, for believing in my work and for helping me to structure and edit the book, making it more appealing to multiple audiences. Two anonymous Acknowledgments x a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s reviewers provided thoughtful suggestions for which this is a better piece of work—thank you for your time and consideration. Thanks to the people who graciously read various chapters: Nana Osei-Kofi, Chris Linder, Debora Hinderliter Ortloff, Cheryl Hunter, Barbara Dennis, and Dawn Michele Whitehead. A few people merit special thanks for reading multiple drafts of multiple chapters and for providing comments on the full manuscript: Marybeth Gasman, Pauline Reynolds, Carla Morelon-Quainoo, Susan Johnson, and Mike Wagner. Carla and Susan also served as peer debriefers, checking my analysis and interpretations for which these women’s stories are better represented. All of these honest comments greatly aided in my revisions to the text. Any errors that remain are my own. I am blessed to have many comrades in the area of writing and researching for social justice. Many people listened to my thoughts on this project and on the complexities of doing work across racial lines. This book is the better for it. In addition to those I have already mentioned, I am grateful to Mary HowardHamilton , Clif Conrad, Laura Perna, Barry Bull, Aki Yonehara, Lilia Santiague, Matt Hartley, Diana Slaughter-Defoe, Benetta Fairley, Adrea Lawrence, Joshua Hunter, Rob Aaron, Shaila Mulholland, Rashawn Ray, Dwyane Smith, Ghangis Carter, Ted Ingram, and John Kuykendall. I am thankful to my colleagues at the University of Nebraska and specifically to my department chair, Larry Dlugosh, and to my dean, Marjorie Kostelnik, for offering me the gift of time that was necessary time to finish this manuscript. Accordingly, I am grateful for the Scholarly Enhancement Program and the teaching releases that were awarded as part of it. My family provided ongoing support for the five years that this project took to complete. Thank you to my parents, Bill and Carola Winkle. Mom, your feminism inspired me to question the world around me, ultimately starting the fire within me that later became this project. Thank you also to my sister, Brenda, and my niece, Mya, for their support. Brenda, your incredible strength reminds me of the importance of this line of work. Thank you to my in-laws, Marilyn and Bill Wagner—I feel so lucky to have such wonderful support and family in you. To Mike—my partner, husband, friend, and fellow scholar—I am eternally grateful to you for believing in me and...