This article offers a new tool for women of color scholars to write and analyze the data and archive from their own life journals and journeys. Coining a new concept of theomethaxis, a Black Womanist Theomethaxis framework is an integration of theory, methodology, and praxis focused on the intersection of race, gender, and spirituality. It uses Black women’s autobiography, critical praxis autoethnography, counter-storytelling, and Black girl cartography as methodological tools. Drawing from cultural studies, feminist theories, African American history, women’s history, and childhood studies, it integrates theoretical constructs from Black feminist thought, Black girlhood studies, Critical Black Feminism, Hip-Hop Feminism, Crunk Feminism, New Black Feminism, Womanist thought, Womanist theology, and the Wild Woman Archetype. Integrating personal narrative, the article illustrates how the framework facilitated the praxis of analyzing 45 years of journals, revealing revolutionary and transformational themes in the initiation journey from Black girlhood to Black womanhood. The concept of a womanist theomethaxis may also provide a framework for application to other academic areas and studies, such as Chicana/Latina feminist studies, Asian American feminist studies, and Indigenous feminist studies.
A Black Womanist Theomethaxis: Theory, Method, and Praxis for Revolutionary-Revelation Writing
Dr. Menah Pratt, nationally recognized as a leader, scholar, and author of four books on issues of race, class, gender, diversity, education, women’s leadership, and critical race feminism, is the Vice President for Strategic Affairs and Diversity, Professor of Education at Virginia Tech, and founder of the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference (11th year). She earned her PhD in Sociology and JD from Vanderbilt University. Her forthcoming book in 2024, Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back Her Superpower, is a genre-bending autobiography of her life journey from Black girlhood to Black womanhood in America.
Menah Pratt; A Black Womanist Theomethaxis: Theory, Method, and Praxis for Revolutionary-Revelation Writing. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research 1 September 2023; 12 (3): 24–47. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/dcqr.2023.12.3.24
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