Othered but Unbothered: Agentic and inclusive narratives of Black Professors in US higher education

Black professors across US university campuses continue to navigate race–based and other forms of discrimination. This research paper argues that as a collective, African American, Afro–Caribbean and African professors experience discrimination at the intersection of their race, gender and nationality. To build my argument, I engage in conversations with ten professors from the Black Diaspora to elevate their stories of dialectical tensions, and racial and cultural stereotypes they confront and negotiate, while maintaining agency and creating safe spaces for inclusive and transformative teaching and learning in their classrooms. Using critical race theory and race–based essentialism to ground my work, I also engage in ethnography to illustrate the transformative role of intercultural pedagogy in dismantling essentialist misperceptions and simultaneously transforming the way students interact with and include others in society.