From Oppression to Grace

"Berry and Mizelle have assembled an impressive array of 19 scholarly essays focusing on the dilemmas, challenges, and opportunities of women of color in the US academy. The contributing authors--women of African, Native American, Latina, East Indian, Korean and Japanese origin--narrate their positive and negative experiences at predominantly White universities....These real-life stories of discrimination, resistance, and survival provide the minority viewpoint, and illustrate the profound consequences of race and gender in the academy. This volume makes a signifcant contribution to the literature on the role of race and gender in American universities. Summing Up: Highly recommended."

Choice

"Compelling narratives that illuminate experiences of women in the academy. The essays highlight the diversity that exists among 'women of color,' not only in terms of their racial and ethnic identity, but also in the multiple facets that are integral to their identities, including family, relationships, and commitments to their community and faith. The concerns addressed in these pages underscore the relentless (institutional) cultures and practices that continue to relegate the professional contributions of women of color to the margins. This book makes a significant contribution. Readers will emerge with a keen understanding of the concerns that continue to impact women scholars of color. This book provides hope that such understanding will inform and influence institutional policies and practices."

The Review of Higher Education

"As the editors note, From Oppression to Grace implies both the movement from relative subjugation to relative freedom and describes the range of experiences felt by women whose relationships to power shift with context. Contributing authors reflect on the roles their multiple identities play as they navigate personal and academic waters. Their stories have the potential both to guide women of color through the academic gauntlet and to inform men and white women about the specific and various challenges women of color encounter in the academy. This anthology illustrates the power of Critical Race Feminism’s lens, examines the complexity of intersecting identities, and belies the need for continued change in the U.S. academy."

AAC&U On Campus with Women

"This edited volume delivers on its promise to use a critical race feminist approach to discuss the multiple identities and social positionalities of women of color, including the ways in which women of color navigate academice environments, as well as the broader environment of the dominant culture....Indeed the multiple positionalities of the women featured in From Oppression to Grace make it one of the richest texts available regarting the contemporary experiences of women of color in the academy...the writers in this volume make profound contributions to a broader understanding of the richness that emerges from attending to the intersections of race, gender, class, nationality, and other factors."

Pat Washington

Feminist Collections