A Black Woman's Guide to Earning a Ph.D.

About the Book

More Black women are needed in the academy. More Black women may want to join the academy, but the academy has not always been accepting of us. Black women who are currently in academia or in doctoral programs face a wide array of social challenges, from racial discrimination to sexism to anti-Black women experiences. Many Black women have hesitated on applying to or starting their doctoral programs to avoid such social challenges. A Black Woman’s Guide to Earning a Ph.D. provides Black women with tips and resources on how to navigate and survive as a doctoral student at a predominantly white university or program. This book focuses primarily on the first two years of graduate school as years 1 and 2 are typically the most challenging. In this book, Black women will read personal stories related to mental health, the impostor syndrome, racial discrimination experiences, and much more. Lastly, this book was written to encourage more Black women to write about their experiences in their doctoral program for others who will come after them. We are all we’ve got.

About the Author

Nicole Telfer is a Ph.D. student in Applied Developmental Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has a poetry book entitled, “Freed” that is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other platforms. Nicole is a poet, writer, scholar, and activist, and uses her platform to address social injustices that Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color experience.