Black Female Faculty, Resilient Grit, and Determined Grace or “Just because everything is different doesn’t mean anything has changed”

This essay centers the lived experiences of protagonist Dr. Eva Grace as a bisexual Black female Assistant Professor navigating identity politics and power dynamics at a traditionally and predominantly White institution. Theoretically anchored by Black feminist thought coupled with critical race theory’s composite counterstorytelling as method, Dr. Grace’s pre-tenure experiences reflect the mundane nature of systemic oppressions in the everyday lives of multiplicatively, marginalized faculty. Accompanying Dr. Grace during an ordinary work week reveals the complexity of: resisting the imposition of domination; experiencing uncertainty, fear, and frustration; establishing work/life balance; and exhaustion—all in the context of working in academia and pursuing promotion and tenure as a first-generation degree earner in her family.