This is how grad students of color are sharing their stories and building community to motivate and inspire.
Grad School is hard, very hard. Oftentimes graduate students of color are so few and far between creating a community is a challenge making the journey that much more challenging. Below is a list of grad school creatives, hustlers, community builders and more creating content and community that not only shed light on our experiences navigating academia but encourage us to continue pushing through.
1.Blk + in Grad School -Podcast- An audioblog looking to inspire and encourage people of color, as well as women, to and through grad school.
2. Just Tryna Graduate -Blog- A resource blog for those all things academic related graduate school. Ran by Bennie Niles, a third year PhD student, Just Tryna Graduate offers insight on navigating grad school with applying Day 2 Day, Battle Wounds with a section called Office Hours highlighting grad students of color.
3.Morning Joy — Podcast — Joy Melody hosts MorningJoy, where she brings on old and new friends to discuss education, mental health, and the music we use to cope in this crazy crazy world.
4.Joy also has a blog Without A Space, where she shares her journey as she courageously manages her mental health while navigating her career in academia and applying for PhD programs.
5.The Lit Scholar — Follow an English Lit PhD student at Cornell University, Ama studies Anglophone poetry and global Black texts. She runs this channel as a hobby, but also shares information on getting into grad school and succeeding as a grad student. Follow along for graduate school advice and general book conversations!
6.ReadBlackademia -Podcast- Highly achieved Tiffany Lee and Autumn Griffin discuss all issues of education in America while bringing in some humor.
7.Cite A Sista -Community- Blog — It began as the brainchild of two University students seeking to transfer theory to practice. What began as once monthly twitter chats has since turned into a community and a movement.
8.wokeSTEM — Community — STEM community built on Black joy, resistance and radical authenticity made to bridge social justice.
9.VanguardSTEM — Blog- A monthly web-series hosting women of color who discuss matters relevant to them.
10.You are the Light — Lifestyle Blog- KaLyn Coghill is a scholar, budding professor, novice front-end developer and digital media professional. She studies black women, coded language, and how it incites violence towards these women in digital spaces.
11.Where She Begins -Blog- Breanna Danielle. A PhD student and plant-based foodie looking to inspire women of color to make the best of their lives. She’s changing the wellness and academic world simultaneously.
12.#BlackandSTEM — Twitter- A community of Black STEM students on Twitter where they hold intensive conversations every Thursday.
13.Fatimah Williams— Twitter- Founder of Beyond the Tenure Track which creates pathways to opportunity beyond the professoriate for graduate students and PhDs. They accomplish this through leadership skills training, professional identity building, and mentorship connections.
14. The Boujee Ratchademic -Blog- Here at this blog, you’ll get all the tea on how I navigate the crossroads of university life, black womanhood, “boujee” tendencies, my relationship to religion/spirituality/Jesus, and general blackity blackness. And, hopefully, you’ll chuckle while taking a note or two. My goal is to share. Connect. Inspire.
15.Speak Your Success — Podcast — A podcast by Jonathan J. Jones to motivate millennials to speak their success and ultimately create a business and life of their dreams.
16.Cite Black Women — Twitter- They believe Black women should be recognized for the innovation and knowledge we’ve produced since the beginning.
17.Marvette Lacy — Blog + Podcast- Marvette helps scholars one on one to start and finish their dissertation without feeling overwhelmed or stuck. She also has a podcast full of insightful advice from different black students.
18.Sister PhD — Blog- Five friends were entering higher education programs and decided to go through the challenges together. SisterPhD facilitates friendships & sisterhood through talking out research, connecting about life experiences, allowing room to vent, and problematize opportunities for growth of self and the group.
19.Am I The Only One? — Blog- Created by two women who had similar post-graduate experiences and hoped to bring onboard others who felt the same. The blog brings on support to fellow young professionals who might have asked themselves Am I The Only One?
20.The Quarter Life Crisis- Blog- The Quarter-Life Crisis, a period between your mid to late 20’s, where you realize you have no idea what you’re doing. You hate the job you’re stuck in. Half your friends are drunk and the other half are newlyweds with newborns. No one told you about high and low credit utilization, and you have no idea how to buy your first car. And while you may feel alone, more than 60 million people are having a #QLCrisis. But I’m here to give you all the help you need!
21.A Bit of Chi -Blog- This is a blog where you’ll see a little bit of everything that’s going on in Dr. Chioma’s life. She shares her personal style, recipes, fitness tips, and travel adventures, along with random things that may be consuming her.
22.Chynna Yvonne -Blog- Chynna Yvonne pulls back the curtain a bit on her life and experiences as a self-aware Black woman in grad school.
23.Ama Bemma -Vlog- Her research focuses on poetics, contemporary Anglophone poetry, African, African-American & Black diasporic literature & culture, and poetry. She’s thinking of ways in which the intersection of politics and aesthetics in experimental poetics disrupt preconceived notions of the Self.
24.Dr. Renetta Garrison Tull -Blog- She presents across the U.S. and Puerto Rico on topics ranging from graduate school recruitment, retention, and dissertation completion, to faculty development. She serves as a national coach & mentor for prospective and current graduate students at universities outside of Maryland through STEM conferences.
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25.Why Aren’t You A Doctor Yet? -Podcast- UK Podcast that discusses, dissects and derides science, tech and geekiness.
26.JKX Comics -Comics- PhD students, science education advocates, and cartoonists on a mission to increase scientific literacy and exposure by teaching scientific concepts in an easy digestible way using comics as a vehicle.
27.Scholar Noire -Blog- Sonita, a Sociology PhD student attempting to produce, curate, and share accessible scholarships. Her work centers the theme of race, gender and economic equality in a post-racial society.
28.FirstGenDocs -Community- A community that affirms the experiences, amplifies the voices, and celebrates the brilliance of First-Generation doctoral students.
29.Angry Black Women Getting Her PhD -YouTube Vlog- The goal of the channel is to get minorities to understand their education is a right and not a privilege. This hope is that by sharing her experiences she will help someone else who is going through something similar.
30.The Ebony Tower -Blog — An academic thought collective designed to generate dialogue around the experiences of young scholars of color. Particularly, they’re interested in naming the issues that impact the success and well-being of academics of color and offering resources and advice to overcome hurdles.
31.#BlackandHooded -Community- Black and Hooded hopes to show the world that Black master’s and doctoral students exist and GRADUATE. They hope that the images shown on their website inspire you to continue to do the work that you do and invoke a fire that makes you want to continue on in your education.
32.Black Outdoors — Blog- Jacqueline L. Scott is a PhD student that loves the outdoors. She’s currently researching Why Black people are afraid of the woods. So far, she’s an author of 3 travel and adventure books.
33.Black Doctoral Network -Community + Conference- The Black Doctoral Network is a multi-disciplinary community of social-change oriented scholars and professionals in the social sciences, STEM disciplines, and humanities.
34.#BlkGradLife -Twitter Community- A community where Black Grad students share their school lives and discuss important matters concerning blacks in grad.
35.MinoritySTEM -Community- Aims to create a network that can connect, support and showcase the individuals working and studying within STEM. they want to work with other organizations and industry partners to help them begin to have the conversations that are required to address diversity issues.
36.Black Girl Does Grad School -Blog- Follow Ravynn an MA/Ph.D. student in American Studies at the College of William and Mary. She covers applying to grad school, handling your courseload, mental health and the like. You’ll find some gems from guest bloggers on here as well!
37.Black Women PhD -Instagram- Instagram pages highlighting Ph.D. graduate students and Ph.D. degree holders doing big things.
38.Black Male PhD -Instagram- Instagram pages highlighting Ph.D. graduate students and Ph.D. degree holders doing big things.
39.Collegiate Girls Club — blog- Collegiate Girls Club is a space created to offer inspiration and direction for first generation women of color who are feeling lost and overwhelmed in the world of higher education.
40.She Go Say -Blog- A Nigerian PhD student living in the U.S. She shares her journey in 3 different way; Play & travel, PhD life, and Across the Atlantic. She’s working on a research that’ll help Sub-Saharan Africa to finally harness its human resources through technology & mobile broadband.
41. Black Girls Guide to Grad School -Blog- was born from the passion of increasing the number of minority women who matriculate through graduate school by sharing her journey and shaping theirs through tips, motivation, mentorship and advice.
