Author ORCID Identifier

0009-0008-9340-7454

Date of Award

Spring 5-21-2025

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education/Leadership in Urban Schools

First Advisor

Patricia Krueger-Henney

Second Advisor

Denise Patmon

Third Advisor

Jakeya Caruthers

Abstract

This study examines the impact of anti-Blackness on the mental health of Black Millennial Womxn (BMW) pursuing post-secondary education. It explores the historical and contemporary factors that contribute to the neglect of Black Womxn in education research and the systemic issues that affect our access to mental health and educational resources. The research utilizes an Endarkened Feminist epistemology and narrative inquiry to center the narratives and lived experiences of BMW, challenging the prevailing narratives that erase our humxnity and intersectional identities. Data was collected through Black Participatory Research (BPR), individual interviews, and visual arts-based methods that center the lived experiences of Black Womxn. Key themes in the findings illuminate that though mental health is salient, socioeconomic inequities impede access to care which further increases the need for therapeutic interventions. Born from this research is Personal Welfare Reclamation (PWR), a praxis for people who inhabit Black bodies to reclaim their humxnity and well-being within anti-Black systems. This praxis is designed to disrupt the historical and ongoing erasure of Black people and consists of rituals that center humxnity through a critical, Black feminist, somatic lens.

Comments

Free and open access to this Campus Access Thesis is made available to the UMass Boston community by ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. Those not on campus and those without a UMass Boston campus username and password may gain access to this thesis through Interlibrary Loan. If you have a UMass Boston campus username and password and would like to download this work from off-campus, click on the “Off-Campus Users” button.

Download

Share

COinS