Chapter 6: Possessing a Higher Consciousness: Restoring the Spiritual Center in Civic Praxis

This chapter is an autobiographical account of my experiences as a Black woman navigating the dissertation process in the midst of dual racial and global health pandemics. I draw on daughtering (Evans-Winters, 2019)—a theoretical framework, marker of identity, and methodological process for recognizing how the spiritual affects the interconnected nature of the physical, behavioral, material, and intellectual aspects of our lives—to explore how I am positioned as a Black woman working at the intersections of Black feminist theory and critical civic praxis. In this discussion, I interrogate the social, cultural, and spiritual tensions along my journey to becoming a community engaged scholar. I further reflect on my literary engagements with sister scholars in a Black woman’s book circle and how our community became a space of elevation and healing, which reignited my sense of purpose and belonging.