Found families: women of colour creating counterspaces in academia

This paper examines how Women of Colour (WoC) in academia form counterspaces to navigate systemic barriers, microaggressions, and institutional exclusion. We explore these self-created communities of care, solidarity, and intellectual exchange through the experiences of ten WoC PhD students, Early Career Researchers, and mentors. Through participatory and dialogical methodologies, collective storytelling, zine-making, and shared reflection, we collaboratively generated and analysed data to understand the function of these spaces as sites of resistance and survival. Our findings reveal the invisible emotional labour that WoC undertake, the structural inequities they encounter, and how laughter, food, and care act as subtle forms of defiance. By centring WoC voices and experiences, we argue that counterspaces are essential not only for the survival of individuals but also as transformative models for creating more inclusive and equitable academic environments.