Endarkened Feminist Epistemology: A Case Study in Higher Education

This dissertation is a phenomenological case study of transnational endarkened feminist epistemology (EFE) in Dr. Cythnia B. Dillard’s graduate study-abroad class at the University of Georgia, Athens and in Ghana. Dillard, who created EFE as a teaching and research paradigm in 2000, grounded it in several frameworks: Black feminist thought (Hill-Collins, 1990); standpoint theory (Harding, 1987); the tenets of African American spirituality; and the work of Parker J. Palmer (1983) on non-religious spirituality in education. This study examines how Dillard actualizes her endarkened feminist epistemology, and how her students experience and make meaning of it. Using classroom observations, interviews with Dillard, and dialogues with Dillard’s students, this study delves into EFE’s origins and students’ meaning-making experiences with EFE—including the related themes of the paradigm such as healing, identity development, cultural histories, spirituality and the evolution of the phenomenon over time. This dissertation includes a chapter in which the researcher applies EFE as a methodology to herself, which is one of the recommended practices of EFE as a research tool. This study concludes with implications and recommendations for practitioners, particularly white practitioners in higher education, who work with African American students in PWIs.