17:00
Birkbeck, University of London
July 7
Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street
When: — Venue: Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street
Womanism, Activism, Higher Education Research Network
Do you have an interest in Autoethnographic research and social justice?
Conference title: Borders, Havens and Digital Spaces for Resistance: Black feminist lives in autoethnographic research
What is the future of radical spaces for Black women’s activism?
Keynote speakers: Professor Geniece Crawford Mondé (Furman University, USA), Professor Ebonie Cunningham Stringer (Penn State University, USA), Dr Jan Etienne (Birkbeck University, UK)
About the conference
This one-day conference will celebrate the changing nature of diverse spaces for resistance in the activist lives of Black women. It will showcase the legacy of radical spaces for resistance across the African Diaspora. Where are these spaces in contemporary social life and how are such spaces impacting Black women in higher education? The conference will bring together researchers, poets, artists, community champions and activist scholars across intergenerational, transnational spaces of activism. It will share good research practice and address the value of Black women’s collaboration in autoethnographic spaces for resistance.
The conference will engage with autoethnographic stories from the kitchen table, the high street, places of worship, community and faith-based centres, as well as in online, social media platforms of resistance.
According to Monde and Stringer (2026)
‘The Higher Education Academy does not serve us well. In extreme cases it can lead to our demise’
‘The work of resistance is inherently a Black Feminist Project’
‘There are times for shared feminist spaces of resistance’ (Etienne, 2025). However, where are the missing spaces for Womanist voices?
Conference organiser: Dr Jan Etienne
Publicity
**Parts of this event will be photographed and recorded for conference website purposes, please contact the organiser if you would like to discuss**.
Conference Papers – Workshops (13 in total)
Papers, Presenters (and Facilitators)
Attendees must choose 2 workshops from the list below – Email workshop choices to Dr Jan Etienne j.etienne@bbk.ac.uk
Workshop 1: Paper title: Intercontinental Childhoods and Self-Generated Black Feminist Resistance: Unravelling Complex Narratives through Hybrid Life Writing & Autoethnography (Referencing Kimberle Crenshaw, Deborah K King) Time: 10.45
• Abiodun Abdul – (Critical Creative PhD Researcher) University of Nottingham – Exploring Black women’s Autoethnographic storytelling – How do we analyse the value of poetry in Black women’s autoethnographic research practice? Facilitator: JEN DAVIS
Workshop 2: Paper title: The Living Room Table Autoethnographies: Somali Womanist conversations of resistance (Referencing Octavia E. Butler, Alice Walker and Patricia Hill Collins) Time: 11.30
• Yasmin Adan: (Teacher, Social Justice scholar and PhD Applicant) Affiliation: Birkbeck University of London - Postgraduate - Somali women autoethnographic conversations of resistance. How can informal autoethnographic conversations help resist impositions on Black female Somali identity? Facilitator: PALMELA WITTER
Workshop 3: Paper title: Poetic Autoethnography “We were always here: Presencing, Black looks, and ordinary resistance” (Referencing Gail Lewis, bell hooks, Dionne Brand) Time: 10.30
• Maria-Lusia Asue – (PhD Doctoral researcher) Affiliation: Birkbeck, University of London - Black Looks in rural Spain: Exploring poetic ethnographic spaces of Womanist resistance – How do we make use of photographs to convey mood and presence in autoethnographic stories of resistance? Facilitator: ELIZABETH CHARLES
Workshop 4: Paper title: Critical Womanist Autoethnographic Spaces for resistance in reparative justice activism (Referencing Sylvia Wynter, Patricia Hill Collins, Claudia Jones) B30 Time: 10.30
• Sabrina Bowen (PhD Doctoral researcher) – Affiliation: Birkbeck University of London - Black women shaping transnational dialogues around historical injustice. How do Black women collaborate in autoethnographic womanist spaces to help shape transnational dialogues around historical injustices? Facilitator: FYNA DOWE
Workshop 5: Paper title: Spaces for resistance in health: Autoethnographic narratives of Black women and girls (Referencing Jenny Douglas, Kimberle Crenshaw) Time: 12.00
· Nataliah Douglas – (Specialist SEND Adviser, Teacher). Affiliation: Birkbeck, University of London- Postgraduate. Autoethnographies, Black women and health care. How can autoethnographic research amplify the lived experiences of Black women and girls accessing healthcare services? Facilitator: DEBORAH SHALLOW
Workshop 6: Paper title: The Masters tools will never dismantle the Masters House: Autoethnographic reflections on Affective survival and the hidden labour of Black and Brown women in psychotherapy training (Referencing bell hooks, Audre Lorde). Time: 11.00
• Sharon Frazer – (Psychodynamic Psychotherapist, Educator and Doctoral researcher). Affiliation: University of Essex - Collaboration, Psychotherapy training and autoethnographic spaces for resistance. How do we engage with autoethnographic, Black feminist approaches when summarising incidents, events and institutional dynamics practitioners must navigate, inside counselling centres of excellence? Facilitator: MATILDA OKUYIGA
Workshop 7: Paper title: Autoethnographic spaces of resistance: Ain’t I A Black Woman? Institutional harm, Silence and Black feminist spaces of resistance (Referencing Patricia Hill Collins) Time: 11.00
• Ngozi Fulani: (PhD Doctoral Researcher) Affiliation: University of Suffolk - Exploring Institutional Harm, Silence and Black Feminist Spaces of Resistance. How do we understand intersecting oppressions in Black women’s autoethnographic stories. Facilitator: DEBI LEWINSON
Workshop 8: Paper title: “I am not an activist”: What is the future of radical spaces for Black women’s ethnographic activism? (Referencing Patricial Hill Collins, Audre Lorde) Time: 10.45
• Sophie Kabangu – Affiliation: University of the Arts - Autoethnographic reflections in resisting the Activist label. How do we engage with autoethnographic reflections to understand the conditions that render resistance unavoidable? Facilitator: NANDITA SIRKER
Workshop 9: Paper title: A strange but Familiar Account: Autoethnographic storytelling as a practice of resistance. (Referencing Audre Lorde, bell hooks) Time: 11.45
• Dr Sabina Khan – (Intersectional Feminist Psychotherapist) Affiliation: Independent Post-doctoral Scholar - Critical psychologist, researcher, intersectional feminist: Black women’s alternative spaces of resistance. How can performance autoethnography help us understand storytelling as a practice of resistance and refuge? Facilitator: CARMELITA KADEENA
Workshop 10: Paper title: Digital Autoethnographies: Black women, body modification, and the workplace. (Patricia Hill Collins, Shirley Anne Tate and Catherine Knight Steele) Time: 11.30
• Jasmin McLean – (PhD Doctoral researcher) Affiliation: Brunel University -Black women, Digital Autoethnographies and body image. How do we engage with digital autoethnography to understand the nature of intersectional discrimination in body modification and its impact on Black women in the workplace? Facilitator: KHYLA KADEENA MILLER
Workshop 11: Paper title: Exploring the Black feminist autoethnographic self: Spaces for Womanist resistance – ‘Baby Suggs’ Sermon and the Political Theology of Constitutional Belonging’ (Referencing Hortense Spillers, Irma McClaurin) Time: 13.45
• Professor C L Nash (Research Fellow and director of the Misogynoir to Mishpat Research Network) – Affiliation: University of Edinburgh - Exploring the Black feminist autoethnographic self: How Black women create spaces of belonging – How do we decide which personal lived experiences to include in our autoethnographic womanist research stories of survival and belonging? (ONLINE) Facilitator: YVONNE MURRAY
Workshop 12: Paper title: Autoethnographic Spaces for Resistance: Mentoring Black Women in UK Drama Schools (Referencing Patricia Hill Collins) Time: 12.00
• Jac O’kody – Mountview Theatre (Course Leader – Musical Theatre/Producer) - Affiliation: Wrexham University Postgraduate - Creative Learning and Autoethnographic approaches to mentoring Black women in Theatre – How can autoethnographic data in stories of self, help improve the professional career development of Black women in the Arts? Facilitator: DAWN DUKAR
Workshop 13: Paper title: Black Women’s Digital Diaspora: Autoethnographic Collectivist and Resistance (Referencing, Lola Young, Heidi Mirza) Time: 11.45
• Jamila Thompson – (PhD Doctoral researcher) Affiliation: Birkbeck, University of London - social media as sacred spaces for Black women. How do everyday digital practices such as storytelling and hair car tutorials, operate as autoethnographic forms of intangible cultural activism? Facilitator: JUDITH MCLEARY
FULL PROGRAMME
UK (BST) Time- Zone 10.00
Birkbeck, Bloomsbury, Malet Street
Introduction - Elizabeth Charles (Conference Chair)
(Assistant Director, Birkbeck Library Services)
Welcome address: Professor Tanya Serisier
Director, Birkbeck Institute for Gender and Sexuality)
Call for Papers: Summaries: Professor Uvanney Maylor (Professor of Education, University of Bedfordshire, UK)
Theorizing Black Feminist Autoethnographies: Dr Jan Etienne
(Chair WAHERN, Birkbeck, University of London)
WORKSHOPS10.30:
Workshops (A)
1,3,4,6,8,12 Presenters include: PhD Candidates, researchers, Womanist activists, Black feminist scholars, Psychodynamic Psychotherapist, Academics and Community Activists
11.30
Workshops (B)
2,5,7,9,10,11,13
Presenters include: Psychosocial Researchers, Teachers, Lecturers, Psychodynamic Therapists, Feminist Psychotherapist, Creatives, Poets, PhD Scholars
12.30
Lunch
13.15: Edutainment
Performance by Poet: ‘Poppyseed'
Performance poet, playwright and lecturer (Angela Harvey)
13.30: Workshop feedback (Facilitators)
ONLINE
13.45
Autoethnographic Womanist Stories of SurvivalProfessor CL Nash
Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh
14.00: ‘Showing up’ Employing Autoethnography in pedagogical spaces
Professor Phillis Sheppard(Professor of Religion, Psychology and Culture, Vanderbilt University, USA)
14.30: Discussion
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
15.00:
KEYNOTE SPEAKER 1
Professor Geniece Monde
Co-editor: Spaces for Resistance: Black Feminist Theory and Praxis in Academia and Beyond, Bloomsbury Academic(Associate Professor of Sociology, Furman University, USA)
KEYNOTE SPEAKER 2
Professor Ebonie Stringer
Co-editor: Spaces for Resistance: Black Feminist Theory and Praxis in Academia and Beyond, Bloomsbury Academic(Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Penn State university, USA)
15.20
Questions and discussion
Chair/Moderator: Elizabeth Charles
HyFlex
15.50
Summary/Way forward
Dr Jan Etienne 16.00
Vote of Thanks
Themes and topics
A. Black diasporic womanist spaces for supporting global communities
B. Creative Arts spaces of culture and Womanist prose
C. Spaces for Black feminist activism and leadership inside higher education research
D. The Digital Space: Black women’s online spaces for resistance; Black women in digital spaces for mental wellbeing; Black women managing the dynamics of cyberspace; Online Black Supplementary schools as spaces for resistance
E. Solidarity and resistance: Borders, policing, asylum, immigration, refugee status and womanist, spaces for resistance
F. Sexuality, equality and Black feminist spaces for solidarity
G: Environmental justice and Womanist spaces for resistance
H. Black feminisms in health, disability and counselling centres of excellence
I. Trade Union movements and Black workers in Womanist activist spaces for change
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES – KEYNOTE SPEAKERS (SEE FULL LISTINGS)
Geniece Crawford Mondé
Geniece Crawford Mondé is Associate Professor of Sociology at Furman University, USA. Her research and teaching interests include Black feminist theory, Black cultural identity, and deliberative justice. Geniece's scholarship has also explored social media's role as a tool of counternarrative framing among Black women.
Ebonie Cunningham Stringer
Ebonie Cunningham Stringer is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and the Executive Director of ‘Not One More’: A Peace and Justice Project at Penn State University-Berks, USA. Her research, teaching, and advocacy focus on justice for mothers in carceral settings and the struggles and resilience of Black women.
Proposed Target Audience
This conference is primarily aimed at activist researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences, including psychosocial studies, sociology and political sciences. We welcome Black women activists working in education, community, health, social work, criminology and related areas as well as those focused on constructions of mother
Contact name: Jan Etienne
Contact phone: 07956510183
SpeakersTags: