Communal Rest Is Resistance: A Spiritual Balm for Black Faculty in Academe

Abstract

Inspired by the four core tenets of Hersey’s (2022) rest is resistance framework, this article explores the possibilities of communal rest as resistance for Black faculty navigating academe. Drawing on a Virtual Kitchen Table Politics (Hollingshead & Meggs, 2023) as an embodied methodological technique, we (six Black faculty in education) bear witness to our own wrestling with the following research questions: (1) what would it look like for Black faculty to embody a radical approach to rest and (2) how might (communal) rest lead to healing for Black faculty? Following our own personal narratives and kitchen table dialogic exchange, we offer Black faculty “reminders for the future” as they embark on their own journey to resist grind culture (i.e., white supremacy and capitalism; Hersey, 2022) in academia.