Dr. Donna J. Nicol

Dr. Donna J. Nicol is presently an Associate Professor and Chair of the Africana Studies Department at California State University Dominguez Hills. She earned her doctorate degree in History and Philosophy of Higher Education (with a graduate minor in African American and African Studies) from The Ohio State University in 2007.

Her research focuses on the history of racism and sexism within U.S. higher education. She is particularly interested in the ways in which African American men and women have subverted institutional discrimination within academe's hallowed halls by developing alternative forms of academic leadership and teaching pedagogy which uses African American culture as forms of resistance to the prevailing idea of how universities should operate. Dr. Nicol has published her work in Race, Ethnicity and Education, The Feminist Teacher, The Encyclopedia of American Women’s History, Encyclopedia of Multiracial America and an edited volume of Habitus of the Hood.

Prior to becoming an academic, Dr. Nicol spent three years teaching secondary language arts and social studies for Los Angeles Unified School District and seven years in various academic administrative roles at Mt. St. Mary's College and The Ohio State University. Dr. Nicol has previously taught African American History, African American Studies, Asian American History, Race in U.S. History, U.S. Women’s History and Women’s Studies at Cal State Fullerton, Mt. St. Mary’s College, Coastline Community College and American Military University.

Donna J. Nicol, (forthcoming, October 2020). “Chairing as Self-Care: Strategies for Combating the Cultural Identity Taxation Trap for Black Women Chairs (Special Issue on Black Women Department Chairs Discuss Academic Service, Leadership and Balance) Palimpsest: A Journal of Women, Gender and the Black International.

Donna J. Nicol and Jennifer A. Yee, (April 2019). "On Reclaiming Our Time", University of Illinois Press Blog

Donna J. Nicol and Jennifer A. Yee. 2017. “Reclaiming Our Time: Women of Color Faculty and Radical Self-Care”, Feminist Teacher (Special Issue on Learning to Teach: Women of Color Reflect on Graduate School Pedagogical Praxis). 27, no. 2-3, 133-156.

Black Woman on Board: Claudia Hampton, The California State University and the Fight to Save Affirmative Action, 1974-1994 (Under Review with The University of Rochester Press)

• “The Educational Activism of Black Women in California in the Post Civil Rights Era”, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, February 2020.
• Panelist, “The State of Black Education” at the State of Black Los Angeles Forum, Hosted by the Mervyn Dymally African American Economic and Political Development Institute, Carson, CA, February 2020.
• Panelist, “African Americans and the Vote”, City of Los Angeles African American Heritage Month Roundtable Discussion, February 2019.
• Panelist, Fourth Annual Methods and Methodologies Working Symposium for Early to Mid-Career Women Scholars, Vanderbilt University Callie House Research Center for the Study of Global Black Cultures and Politics, September 2019.
• “Women in Leadership: Defining Our Power” Keynote Speaker for Assemblyman Mike Gipson (CA-64th District) Women’s Leadership Breakfast, Wilmington, CA, May 2019.
• Panelist, “The Black Community and Presidential Politics: Crafting and Advancing a Black Agenda” African American Cultural Center (Los Angeles), April 2019.
• Panelist, “Black Migration: Human Rights and Transformative Resistance”, City of Los Angeles African American Heritage Month Roundtable Discussion, February 2019.
• “Movement Conservatism and Anti-Blackness in the Academy” Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Carson, CA, February 2019.
• Panelist, Roundtable on the Scholarship of Dr. Amos Wilson’ Blueprint for Black America, 8th Annual Pan African Global Trade and Investment Conference, CSUDH, October 2018.
• Asian American Feminisms Caucus: Feminist Mentoring and Self-Care, Presented at the Association of Asian American Studies Conference, San Francisco, California, March 2018.
• “Race and Gender in the Exercise of University Trustee Power: Dr. Claudia Hampton and the California State University System”, Presented to the Oxford Women's Leadership Symposium, Somerville College, Oxford, England, United Kingdom, December 2017.

• Search Committee Member, Coordinator of CAPE (Center for Advocacy, Prevention and Empowerment), Coordinator of Labor Studies and Women’s Studies, Tenure Track Search in Asian Pacific Studies and Women’s Studies
• Academic Senate Representative for Africana Studies
• Interim Coordinator of Chicana and Chicano Studies, Fall 2019
• Faculty Advocate, Campus Awareness, Response and Education Team
• Departmental Advisor, Africana Studies Department
• Black History Month Calendar and Distinguished Lecture Series Coordination