In Sister Resisters: Mentoring Black Women on Campus, authors Janie Victoria Ward and Tracy L. Robinson-Wood describe a mentorship model designed to advocate for Black women college students.
Ward and Robinson-Wood, experts in the developmental and identity challenges of young people of color, share a new approach to working with this historically underserved students group. Through case studies, student narratives, and research findings, the authors document the specific deterrents young Black women face daily on campus, from cultural pressures and class bias to racist and misogynistic microaggressions.
The authors call on campus mentors, typically White women, to increase their own cultural competencies so that they may better support and work with their student mentees. This "Sister Resister" mentorship model emphasizes the acquisition of cultural knowledge, the power of intersectionality, and the critical role of resistance in the lives of Black (and White) women as they navigate interpersonal and institutional bias and discrimination. Sister Resisters highlights the developmental processes that transpire in both mentor and mentee. The book provides anti-racist, consciousness-raising self-assessments and other growth-enhancing recommendations for women who aspire to be staunch mentor/supporters.
Janie Victoria Ward is Professor Emeritus of the Departments of Education and Africana Studies at Simmons University. She is the co-editor of three books and the author of The Skin We’re In: Teaching Our Teens to be Emotionally Strong, Socially Smart, and Spiritually Connected.
Tracy L. Robinson-Wood is Professor of Applied Psychology at Northeastern University. She is the author of The Convergence of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender: Multiple Identities in Counseling, now in its fifth edition.
- KBOO