Graduate Student Research Symposium 2025

This qualitative research study, grounded in Black feminist epistemologies, utilized sista circle methodology to explore how Black doctoral women’s sister-scholar relationships shape their socialization into the professoriate. Findings from this study are discussed in three major sections: Black doctoral women BDW navigating challenges in the PhD pipeline, BDW cultivating sister-scholar relationships, and BDW navigating socialization on their own terms. This study extends what is known about graduate socialization by describing how sister-scholar relationships are essential to BDW socialization. Recommendations from this study include institutional stakeholders’ acknowledgment of barriers within the PhD pipeline for Black women, institutional support for Black women cultivating sister-scholar relationships, and faculty and peers’ practice of sister-scholar relationships.