16: “We Are Each Other’s Bond”: Abolitionist Feminism Peer Mentorship as Healing and Sustaining Praxis for Black Women Doctoral Students

Peer mentorship among Black women is born in sacred spaces—beauty salons, churches, and brunches—where community is refuge and strength. More than support, it is resistance, a refusal to navigate academia in isolation. Rooted in abolitionist feminist mentoring, it challenges oppressive systems and reimagines mentorship as communal, joyful, and care-centered (Davis et al., 2022). Here, knowledge is shared freely, and success is measured by collective flourishing. On the periphery of the Ivory Tower, Black women carve out spaces to validate and amplify their experiences, sustaining and fortifying one another (Bell‑Scott & Johnson‑Bailey, 1999).

The academy remains hostile, demanding Black women’s labor while denying them belonging. The tragic case of Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey and the forced resignation of Harvard’s first Black president, Claudine Gay, reveal the anti‑Black gendered violence embedded in higher education. Alongside the experiences of JoAnne Epps, Orinthia Montague, Thea Hunter, and Cerri Banks, these cases expose academia’s failure to protect Black women. In response, abolition feminism and radical healing frameworks provide the language to name these violences and assert the urgency of peer mentorship as a restoration site.