There are not enough resources for and about women of colour (WOC) graduate students as well as connections to and between these women at universities throughout the west. As more and more websites, collectives, and content producers pop up to document, reflect, dissect, and evaluate graduate school life, the time is suitable for a printed collection that brings together WOC’s writings on their experiences as graduate students. Deliberate: The Experiences of Women of Colo(u)r Graduate Students is an anthology that aims to do just that.

This anthology is a documentation of what WOC experience while pursuing graduate studies in the west. The anthology takes its title from a quote attributed to Audre Lorde that constantly surfaces in spaces of black and feminist thought and is used as a rallying cry in response to challenges to personhood: “I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.” Deliberate will collect together testimonies of what occurs in spaces that have traditionally and continually marginalised and problematized the presence of women of colour scholars. The intention for Deliberate is to produce a document of witness, to speak deliberately, collectively, and loudly about the singular experiences of WOC graduate students in the academy, and the possibilities that exist due to and through our presence in these institutions.

About the editor: 

Nehal El-Hadi is a writer, researcher, and media producer. Her work explores the intersections between technology, the body, and the city. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Planning at the University of Toronto, Canada, where she is researching how women of colour engage online social media in pursuit of social justice. Her Twitter handle is @iamnehal