What role do the genre's autoethnography and/or memoir play in the revolution and evolution of Black women in the academy? How can they help instigate radical change and encourage sustainable practices for Black women who seek to thrive in higher education?

In a roundtable format, "Write Smack In the Middle: Black Women, Autoethnography, Memoir, and the Academy" will shift the conversation from studying others to reflecting on oneself. This interactive session aims to create an intentional space for Black women who serve in academia to reflect and center on their daily experiences in their own words.

Panelists and audience members will actively participate, share, and hold each other's experiences to create a transformational and healing space. In the infamous words of Ntozake Shange's lady in brown (For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When The Rainbow Is Enuf), we will lay our stories alongside the other and "sing a black girl's song."

We will use written stories to explore how the genres of autoethnography and memoir can be vehicles for evolution and revolution 'and' the springboard for much-needed and dire conversations on robust, whole, and healthy-bodied preservation strategies that may include well-being, joy, various modes of healing, rest, self-care, and resistance.