Sisterlocking Discoarse

Book excerpt: Finalist for the 2021 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Education Category In Sisterlocking Discoarse, hair is a medium for reflecting on how academic leadership looks, performs, and changes when embodied by a Black woman. In these ten essays, Valerie Lee traverses disciplines and genres, weaving together memoir, literary analysis, legal cases, folklore, letters, travelogues, family photographs, and cartoons to share her story of navigating academia. Lee's path is not singular or linear, but rather communal and circular as she revisits her earliest years in her grandmother's home, advances through the professoriate and senior administration, and addresses her hopes and fears for her own children. Drawing inspiration from the African American storytelling traditions she has spent decades studying and teaching, Lee approaches issues of race, gender, social justice, academic labor, and leadership with a voice that is clear, intimate, and humorous. As she writes in the introduction, "Sisterlocking Discoarse is about braiding and breathing and believing that a Black woman's journey through the academy is important." Lee's journey will appeal to students, faculty, and administrators across fields and institutions who are committed to making higher education more inclusive, while speaking to the experiences of professional women of color more broadly.