Black Women Scholars Redefining Self-Care in Academia

Academia is often lauded as a space of boundless intellectual inquiry, but for Black scholars, it can simultaneously operate as a site of profound institutional isolation and invisible labor. Navigating the highest echelons of higher education frequently requires battling entrenched structural barriers, carrying the weight of racial battle fatigue, and managing the unspoken expectation to serve as the resident diversity expert often at the expense of our own well-being. In this landscape, self-care cannot be reduced to a corporate buzzword, a luxury, or a fleeting weekend activity.  It is a critical, life-sustaining necessity. It is the very infrastructure required to safeguard the psychosocial experiences of Black doctoral students and early-career academics as they transition into becoming newly minted scholars. Our stamina to complete degrees, produce groundbreaking research, and disrupt global educational inequities depends directly on our ability to heal and protect our mental, emotional, and physical health.  Today, it is essential to highlight three brilliant Black women scholars whose pioneering research focuses precisely on this intersection: the radical, essential nature of self-care and healing for Black people. Their work provides the frameworks, the historical grounding, and the psychological tools we need to survive, thrive, and ultimately redefine the global academic ecosystem.

Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans: Reclaiming Our History of Wellness

Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans, a professor at Georgia State University and author of Black Women's Yoga History: Memoirs of Inner Peace, has dedicated her scholarship to uncovering the long-standing, historical legacy of self-care among Black women. Her research actively pushes back against the mainstream narrative that wellness practices are a modern, exclusionary, or commodified phenomenon. Instead, her work reveals that Black women from civil rights icons like Rosa Parks to literary giants like Maya Angelou have historically utilized yoga, meditation, and mindfulness to fortify themselves against systemic racism and trauma. For Black scholars, Dr. Evans’ work provides profound psychosocial validation. It reminds us that our pursuit of inner peace in a relentlessly demanding academic environment is not a sign of weakness, but a continuation of our ancestors' brilliant survival strategies. She notes that self-care frequently functions as effective community care, directly relieving the intense pressure of navigating academic stress in isolation. By studying elder memoirs and historical health practices, Dr. Evans provides a tangible roadmap for stress management. Her research beautifully illustrates that resting, breathing, and centering our bodies are not distractions from our intellectual pursuits; they are the fundamental practices that sustain our intellectual capital and preserve our personal agency.

Dr. Angel Jones: Naming and Combating Racial Battle Fatigue

Dr. Angel Jones is a critical race scholar and educator whose research zeroes in on the specific psychological toll of the academic environment, particularly focusing on racial microaggressions, gendered racism, and Racial Battle Fatigue. Dr. Jones powerfully articulates the exhausting realities of existing in white-dominated institutional spaces where Black women are frequently hyper-visible during diversity initiatives, yet remain structurally unsupported in their day-to-day scholarship.

What makes Dr. Jones’ research on self-care so vital for the psychosocial experience of Black scholars is her unflinching honesty about the Self-Care Paradox within higher education. Institutions often preach wellness to their students and faculty while simultaneously maintaining the very hierarchies and unsustainable workloads that cause the harm in the first place. Dr. Jones responds to this paradox by actively advocating for intentional, culturally responsive spaces that center the celebration and holistic support of marginalized scholars. Her research emphasizes that true self-care requires divesting from the academic hamster wheel of overproduction and instead investing in community advocacy and radical boundary setting. She teaches us that protecting our peace, rejecting exploitative institutional demands, and demanding structural change are foundational acts of academic survival.

Tricia Hersey: Reclaiming Rest

Tricia Hersey, a theologian, artist, and founder of The Nap Ministry, has fundamentally shifted the global conversation on wellness with her profound framework: Rest is Resistance. While academic institutions frequently function as microcosms of a capitalist system that equates human worth with relentless intellectual production, Hersey's public scholarship disrupts this narrative entirely. She argues that the mandate to constantly produce the often labeled as grind cultures inextricably linked to historical systems of white supremacy and exploitation, which disproportionately extract labor from Black bodies. For Black women navigating doctoral programs, Hersey’s teachings offer a radical, psychosocial intervention. The academic environment often weaponizes the imposter phenomenon, convincing marginalized scholars that they must chronically overwork simply to prove they belong in the room. Hersey’s framework provides the theological and moral permission to reject this premise. She teaches that rest is not a reward to be earned after a dissertation chapter is finished or a grant is submitted; rest is a divine, fundamental human right.  Integrating Hersey's philosophy into the academic journey means actively refusing to let institutional neglect dictate our physical and mental health. For a Black doctoral student, embracing the concept of the Nap Ministry is an act of profound educational justice. By intentionally prioritizing sleep, stillness, and daydreaming, scholars are not neglecting their research. They are actively reclaiming their humanity, safeguarding their bodies, and ensuring they have the stamina to shape the future on their own terms.

The Infrastructure of Human Rights

The intellectual and cultural contributions of Dr. Evans, Dr. Jones, and Tricia Hersey do more than just advance the fields of history, education, and theology. Their frameworks construct a vital safety net for our communities. They remind us that safeguarding the psychosocial well-being of Black scholars is not just an institutional best practice; it is an urgent, non-negotiable human rights imperative. As we continue the work of building formidable networks of scholars, creating virtual villages, and supporting our peers, we must center these teachings. We must advocate for institutional policies that structurally support the mental and physical health of our doctoral students and faculty. We offer our deepest thanks for the brilliant minds mapping out our paths to wellness. Let us honor their conscientious work by radically and unapologetically prioritizing our own care.

References:

Deem Journal. (2024, June 4). Keynote: Designing rest as a practice with Tricia Hersey [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/MGE05o4wcN0?si=RNEv5dkB2B7HmD9s

Evans, S. Y. (2021). Black women's yoga history: Memoirs of inner peace. State University of New York Press.

Zenned Math. (2021, February 25). An interview with Dr. Angel Jones on the impact of racial trauma [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/GqZFxWdYxOg?si=lTVQzy0EmtT1-dxr