Fire and Ice: The Wisdom of Black Women in the Academy

This article presents the findings from a qualitative research project about a group of Black women scholars who discuss their experiences as academics in a predominantly White setting. The scholars represent fields including anthropology, education, Pan African studies, art education, and language studies. The themes found across the interviews include the value of education among their parents and families, the philosophy of mentoring that they espouse, their commitment to service in and beyond the campus, and their productivity within the rubric that Boyer (1990) described as scholarship of discovery, integration, application, and teaching.