We Must Create Space to Feel It All: Empowering BIPOC Women Through University-Based Professional Development

Adult learners belonging to intersecting minoritized identity categories often face a confluence of barriers to career advancement, including in pursuing university-based professional development. As two women educator-scholars of color, we aim to enact liberatory practices that specifically support BIPOC women students who remain a vulnerable student group, especially in predominantly white institutions (PWIs) of higher education. This paper explores perspectives about supporting women of color in PWIs that exist in complementary tension as they relate to the differences and similarities of coauthors’ intersectional experiences as BIPOC women academics. Informal conversations and journaling around experiences and stories shared during the initial months of coauthors’ working together at a regional comprehensive university in the southeastern United States inform this perspectives piece.