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)
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