On today’s show, host Karma Chávez returns to chat with education scholar Rachelle Winkle-Wagner about her new book, The Chosen We: Black Women’s Empowerment in Higher Education. They talk about how, as a white woman, Winkle-Wagner built trust with the Black women she interviewed for the book, and how her relationship to Black feminist theory–especially the idea of collective liberation–developed over the years. 

Winkle-Wagner also shares her findings on how Black women navigate race and gender at HBCUs and predominantly white institutions (PWIs). She offers suggestions for how PWI’s like UW–Madison can better support Black women, especially at a time of cuts to diversity, equity, and inclusion funding.

Winkle-Wagner’s book focuses on the role of community support and is drawn from research conducted over the course of a decade. It documents the experiences and oral histories of 105 accomplished, college-educated Black women who graduated between 1954 and 2014 from both HBCUs and predominantly white institutions. Winkle-Wagner’s findings demonstrate that maintaining connection and community among themselves—a Chosen We—has been the primary way that Black women have persevered and thrived in and beyond higher education for generations.

Rachelle Winkle-Wagner is Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She earned her PhD from Indiana University in Education Policy Studies with a concentration in higher education and minors in sociology and qualitative inquiry. Prior to coming to UW–Madison, she held positions on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She is the author of nine books, including The Unchosen We: Black Women and Identity in Higher Education.

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