LORI PATTON DAVIS: Mapping the Landscape of African American Postsecondary Education

This chapter reviews the scholarly work of Lori Patton Davis and articulates the means through which it exemplifies the intellectual activist strategy of contesting existing relations of power within the context of US While, the boundary-crossing work of Lori Patton Davis exemplifies both strategies of intellectual activism, emphasis in the chapter will be placed on Pattons use of the strategy of contesting existing relations of power manifested within the context of US Specific focus in the chapter is placed on ways that Pattons scholarship challenges deficit-oriented knowledge and constructs new knowledge about African Americans and their postsecondary education experiences. In a conceptual piece exploring inequities in the promotion process for Black women seeking promotion to the rank of full professor, Croom and Patton trouble notions of equity and fairness in promotion and tenure decisions. Patton’s scholarship related to Black women in postsecondary education centers Black women’s intersectionality and complicates understanding of Black women’s lived realities within these educational spaces.