Women of Color in Academia: Theorizing in the Flesh Toward Decolonial Feminist Futures

Too often, the experiences of women of color (WoC) academics are silenced despite university commitments to diversity and being spaces for and occupied by those who espouse liberal antiracist ideologies. We are a group of academics at various stages of our academic careers, from different disciplines, various universities in Australia, and from different and overlapping social backgrounds. The aim of this article is to engage in embodied theorizing about our experiences as WoC scholars in Australian universities. Despite our diverse histories and trajectories arising from our social positionalities, our stories speak to our two-fold struggles—our struggles with resisting varied colonial violence through academia, and in this process, experiencing colonial violence within academia. Building on Lugones (2003), we conclude with a discussion on the importance and the possibilities of working in solidarity toward social justice, liberation, and decolonial feminist futures from and within the academy.