Disrupting Carceral Logics Within U.S. Higher Education: Black Women’s Lawsuits as Resistance to Institution-Sanctioned Violence

ABSTRACT

This inquiry focuses on the experiences of black women in U.S. higher education in the less studied realm of gendered and racialized disfunction compared with K–12 education in which violence and surveillance all too often mirror the criminal legal system. The author explores the traumatic impact of carceral logics—surveillance, control, and punishment —on black women’s educational and employment experiences. Black women offer intellectual labor and time as students, athletes, faculty, staff, and administrators; their collective efforts enrich institutions of higher education. By analyzing lawsuits filed by black women who have suffered financial, professional, educational, and emotional harms, the author seeks to bring needed scrutiny to embedded power structures and gendered-race assumptions that undermine equity in higher education.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

LaWanda W. M. Ward

LaWanda W. M. Ward, J.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor of higher education and research associate in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State University-University Park campus. As a qualitative researcher committed to equity and justice, she engages critical theories to investigate legal issues in U.S. higher education with a focus on race-conscious admissions, free speech theory, and tenure denial litigation.