Robin M Boylorn
Biographic Data
| ID | 74972 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Robin M Boylorn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Robin M |
| FAMILY NAME | Boylorn |
| SIGNATURE | BOYLORN R M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Alabama |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 54 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Stitching Theory
In this essay, we consider the emancipatory potential and power of creativity that has been passed down intergenerationally between Black women. From foremothers to grandmothers, we reflect on the life-giving and life-sustaining power of Black women’s creativity to highlight how their artistry is an inheritance and means of everyday survival. By focusing on the generative and generational potential of found art, we propose stitching theory as an …
Vicennium
In this outgoing editorial for the 20th Anniversary volume of Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Robin M. Boylorn reflects on her editorship using the lens and metaphor of an archivist and an architect
How to be a (Black woman) journal editor during a pandemic
In this introduction to her first issue, incoming editor Robin M. Boylorn reflects on some of the challenges and rewards she experienced during her editor-elect year, and outlines her goals and intentions for volumes 20 and 21
Visual voices and aural (auto)ethnographies
This themed issue speaks to the political significance and power of stories and epistemological privileges, and the impact and influence of identity, technology, and culture in our storied communication. The digital focus of the last 20 years continually impacts how we tell and disseminate stories, how we make and record observations (research), and how we teach and reach audiences (publication). Featured essays foreground the ways we can use our…
Keep Remembering”
The memorial is a maze of concrete and steel. Visitors are asked to stay off the grass, and follow the steps and sidewalks through the cemented cemetery that houses rusting representations of racism, death, and injustice. Statues of slaves bound by shackles, an infant dangling from its mother’s arms, reach toward the entrance as exit as you make your way to the memorial site. A narrative engraved on wall stone offers a storied history of white su…
Becoming
In this introduction to the special issue the authors craft a critical autoethnography to chronicle their relationship and/to critical autoethnography. They use Michelle Obama’s book and documentary Becoming to reflect on how the critical reflexivity inherent in autoethnographic work can be used to document relationships, moments of revelation, and self-empowerment. They then preview four articles that map experiences of becoming linked to racial…
Embracing Intersectionality in Co-Cultural and Dominant Group Theorizing
It can be difficult to identify consequential social identities when both conversation participants feel culturally disadvantaged. This phenomenon is especially present in intercultural interactions that are power-laden, but are also present when there are multiple perceptions of social disadvantage at play within a given interaction. Depending on the saliency of a cultural marker such as race or sex, for example, an African American man may feel…
All things are possible
The author reflects on the ingenuity and improvisation of black women as research methodology. She summarizes the contributions of the special issue to discuss the role and importance of creativity and lived experience in the work of black women researchers
Write–Reach–Repeat
This chapter considers the role, importance, and impact of public intellectualism on the future of qualitative research. The chapter argues that the move toward technology and the public dissemination of information via the internet requires a shift in how and what we research with an expressed intention of reaching a broader and nonacademic audience. The chapter considers the relationship between the private and public sphere, and the so-called …
Teaching at the end of the world
By the time George Floyd was murdered at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day 2020, black folk had already been in mourning for 400 years. B
Critical Autoethnography
From Boys to Men
In this essay, the author considers the ways black masculinity is created, negotiated, and sustained in hip-hop cinema. She traces a twenty-five-year trajectory of filmic representations of black boys becoming men where hip-hop offers a context and aesthetic for understanding black manhood. Chronicling three films, which were released in the early 1990s, early 2000s, and early 2010s, she argues that the fragility of black masculine identity in fi…
On Being at Home with Myself
The author uses a metaphor of home to discuss and situate a way of being in and seeing/experiencing the world through a raced and gendered lens. She uses what she calls blackgirl autoethnography to talk about embodied, critical, and culturally situated research that begins (and/or) ends at home, in the bodies we live with, and the social circumstances we live through. Using sensory data and preliminary interviews with women she has shared “home” …
Critical Autoethnography
Killing Me Softly or on the Miseducation of (Love and) Hip Hop
In this bluesy poetic prose, the author engages poetry, personal narrative, and performance to reflect on how hip hop served as a soundtrack for her transition to womanhood in the rural south. She uses lyrics from Killing Me Softly (originated by Roberta Flack in the 70s and repopularized by The Fugees in 1996) and other songs from the 90s to tell stories about growing up, love, loss, depression, and abuse situated within her race, culture, sex, …
The Good(all) Effect
The Good(all) Effect refers to the groundbreaking and influential work of H. L. "Bud" Goodall, Jr., and its continuing and rippling effects in qualitative studies and the discipline of Communication Studies following his death. In this tribute piece, one of his protegees writes a narrative reflection of their professional relationship and reflects on how his work and words inspire her own. She also considers ways to honor her mentor by forwarding…
Scenes from Sweetwater
This is a chronological photo essay of images and scenes from rural North Carolina in the mid- to late-twentieth century, as depicted in Sweetwater: Black Women and Narratives of Resilience
Stories from Sweetwater
Sweetwater: Black Women and Narratives of Resilience is an ethnographic autoethnography that collapses traditional ethnographic research, creative writing techniques, and autoethnography to tell a multi-generational story of growing up black and female in the rural South in the twentieth century. The following excerpts, taken from the Prologue and Chapter One, offer a framework and context for the reviews contained in the forum. By introducing th…
From Here to There
In this reflexive auto/ethnography, the author challenges the lessons she learned about difference growing up in a small community. Seeing Johnson's quare theory as an opportunity to reimagine problematic conditioning, she reflects on moments of clarity related to sexuality, race, class, and gender difference and theorizes the possibilities of quare auto/ethnography as an opportunity to critique and engage difference. She uses auto/ethnography to…
Love, Peace, and Soooooul
The Fire This Time (TFTT), a Black writers' collaboration which uses multiple genres of writing as our method is grounded in what Don Cornelius used to call Love, Peace, and Soul. Love, because our love for writing and the complexities and challenges of the Black experience, coupled with a passion for connecting with other Black scholars in ways that have the potential for making a difference in the world, is at the heart of this work. Peace, bec…
Dark-Skinned Love Stories
In recent years academic scholarship and the public imagination has focused on the love lives (or lack thereof) of black women. In response and reaction to the recent so-called black love epidemic I interrogate claims about black women's failure at love and critique the ways that black women are often blamed for their cultural positionality. Framing my personal story with Toni Morrison's fictional character Pecola Breedlove, I discuss the role of…
Black Kids’ (B.K.) Stories
One approach to talking about race and racism in the classroom is to promote dialogic communication through open-ended dialogue and autoethnographic storytelling. In an effort to understand and consider how the lived experiences of race and racism are communicated and reflected on outside of the classroom, the author initiated a focus group with Black students from a race class to reflect about their experiences in the classroom. By following a p…
Gray or For Colored Girls Who Are Tired of Chasing Rainbows
Reflexivity interrogates the cause and effect of self-awareness and self-reference in qualitative work. This article uses reflexivity to resolve the meaning and implications that race has on ethnographic research. The author argues that race automatically and inevitably influences research, therefore conscious race reflexivity is a useful tool for auto/ ethnographic work. Even when race is not named out loud, it is germane to how an ethnographic …
Re-Imagining Possibilities
E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One)
Written to initiate a dialogue about race in the academy, this narrative focuses on the experience of Black Ph.D. students in predominantly White academic institutions. Experimental in method and representation, this article poses important questions about race in academia. The author utilizes several qualitative opportunities, writing as autoethnography, poetry, and narrative. As a participant and researcher of the experience, the author is give…
E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One)
Written to initiate a dialogue about race in the academy, this narrative focuses on the experience of Black Ph.D. students in predominantly White academic institutions. Experimental in method and representation, this article poses important questions about race in academia. The author utilizes several qualitative opportunities, writing as autoethnography, poetry, and narrative. As a participant and researcher of the experience, the author is give…
Gray or For Colored Girls Who Are Tired of Chasing Rainbows
Reflexivity interrogates the cause and effect of self-awareness and self-reference in qualitative work. This article uses reflexivity to resolve the meaning and implications that race has on ethnographic research. The author argues that race automatically and inevitably influences research, therefore conscious race reflexivity is a useful tool for auto/ ethnographic work. Even when race is not named out loud, it is germane to how an ethnographic …
Killing Me Softly or on the Miseducation of (Love and) Hip Hop
In this bluesy poetic prose, the author engages poetry, personal narrative, and performance to reflect on how hip hop served as a soundtrack for her transition to womanhood in the rural south. She uses lyrics from Killing Me Softly (originated by Roberta Flack in the 70s and repopularized by The Fugees in 1996) and other songs from the 90s to tell stories about growing up, love, loss, depression, and abuse situated within her race, culture, sex, …
Embracing Intersectionality in Co-Cultural and Dominant Group Theorizing
It can be difficult to identify consequential social identities when both conversation participants feel culturally disadvantaged. This phenomenon is especially present in intercultural interactions that are power-laden, but are also present when there are multiple perceptions of social disadvantage at play within a given interaction. Depending on the saliency of a cultural marker such as race or sex, for example, an African American man may feel…
Black Kids’ (B.K.) Stories
One approach to talking about race and racism in the classroom is to promote dialogic communication through open-ended dialogue and autoethnographic storytelling. In an effort to understand and consider how the lived experiences of race and racism are communicated and reflected on outside of the classroom, the author initiated a focus group with Black students from a race class to reflect about their experiences in the classroom. By following a p…
Becoming
In this introduction to the special issue the authors craft a critical autoethnography to chronicle their relationship and/to critical autoethnography. They use Michelle Obama’s book and documentary Becoming to reflect on how the critical reflexivity inherent in autoethnographic work can be used to document relationships, moments of revelation, and self-empowerment. They then preview four articles that map experiences of becoming linked to racial…
All things are possible
The author reflects on the ingenuity and improvisation of black women as research methodology. She summarizes the contributions of the special issue to discuss the role and importance of creativity and lived experience in the work of black women researchers
The Good(all) Effect
The Good(all) Effect refers to the groundbreaking and influential work of H. L. "Bud" Goodall, Jr., and its continuing and rippling effects in qualitative studies and the discipline of Communication Studies following his death. In this tribute piece, one of his protegees writes a narrative reflection of their professional relationship and reflects on how his work and words inspire her own. She also considers ways to honor her mentor by forwarding…
Love, Peace, and Soooooul
The Fire This Time (TFTT), a Black writers' collaboration which uses multiple genres of writing as our method is grounded in what Don Cornelius used to call Love, Peace, and Soul. Love, because our love for writing and the complexities and challenges of the Black experience, coupled with a passion for connecting with other Black scholars in ways that have the potential for making a difference in the world, is at the heart of this work. Peace, bec…
Re-Imagining Possibilities
E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One)
Written to initiate a dialogue about race in the academy, this narrative focuses on the experience of Black Ph.D. students in predominantly White academic institutions. Experimental in method and representation, this article poses important questions about race in academia. The author utilizes several qualitative opportunities, writing as autoethnography, poetry, and narrative. As a participant and researcher of the experience, the author is give…
Re-Imagining Possibilities
Black Kids’ (B.K.) Stories
One approach to talking about race and racism in the classroom is to promote dialogic communication through open-ended dialogue and autoethnographic storytelling. In an effort to understand and consider how the lived experiences of race and racism are communicated and reflected on outside of the classroom, the author initiated a focus group with Black students from a race class to reflect about their experiences in the classroom. By following a p…
Gray or For Colored Girls Who Are Tired of Chasing Rainbows
Reflexivity interrogates the cause and effect of self-awareness and self-reference in qualitative work. This article uses reflexivity to resolve the meaning and implications that race has on ethnographic research. The author argues that race automatically and inevitably influences research, therefore conscious race reflexivity is a useful tool for auto/ ethnographic work. Even when race is not named out loud, it is germane to how an ethnographic …
Dark-Skinned Love Stories
In recent years academic scholarship and the public imagination has focused on the love lives (or lack thereof) of black women. In response and reaction to the recent so-called black love epidemic I interrogate claims about black women's failure at love and critique the ways that black women are often blamed for their cultural positionality. Framing my personal story with Toni Morrison's fictional character Pecola Breedlove, I discuss the role of…
From Here to There
In this reflexive auto/ethnography, the author challenges the lessons she learned about difference growing up in a small community. Seeing Johnson's quare theory as an opportunity to reimagine problematic conditioning, she reflects on moments of clarity related to sexuality, race, class, and gender difference and theorizes the possibilities of quare auto/ethnography as an opportunity to critique and engage difference. She uses auto/ethnography to…
Love, Peace, and Soooooul
The Fire This Time (TFTT), a Black writers' collaboration which uses multiple genres of writing as our method is grounded in what Don Cornelius used to call Love, Peace, and Soul. Love, because our love for writing and the complexities and challenges of the Black experience, coupled with a passion for connecting with other Black scholars in ways that have the potential for making a difference in the world, is at the heart of this work. Peace, bec…
Scenes from Sweetwater
This is a chronological photo essay of images and scenes from rural North Carolina in the mid- to late-twentieth century, as depicted in Sweetwater: Black Women and Narratives of Resilience
Stories from Sweetwater
Sweetwater: Black Women and Narratives of Resilience is an ethnographic autoethnography that collapses traditional ethnographic research, creative writing techniques, and autoethnography to tell a multi-generational story of growing up black and female in the rural South in the twentieth century. The following excerpts, taken from the Prologue and Chapter One, offer a framework and context for the reviews contained in the forum. By introducing th…
On Being at Home with Myself
The author uses a metaphor of home to discuss and situate a way of being in and seeing/experiencing the world through a raced and gendered lens. She uses what she calls blackgirl autoethnography to talk about embodied, critical, and culturally situated research that begins (and/or) ends at home, in the bodies we live with, and the social circumstances we live through. Using sensory data and preliminary interviews with women she has shared “home” …
Critical Autoethnography
Killing Me Softly or on the Miseducation of (Love and) Hip Hop
In this bluesy poetic prose, the author engages poetry, personal narrative, and performance to reflect on how hip hop served as a soundtrack for her transition to womanhood in the rural south. She uses lyrics from Killing Me Softly (originated by Roberta Flack in the 70s and repopularized by The Fugees in 1996) and other songs from the 90s to tell stories about growing up, love, loss, depression, and abuse situated within her race, culture, sex, …
The Good(all) Effect
The Good(all) Effect refers to the groundbreaking and influential work of H. L. "Bud" Goodall, Jr., and its continuing and rippling effects in qualitative studies and the discipline of Communication Studies following his death. In this tribute piece, one of his protegees writes a narrative reflection of their professional relationship and reflects on how his work and words inspire her own. She also considers ways to honor her mentor by forwarding…
From Boys to Men
In this essay, the author considers the ways black masculinity is created, negotiated, and sustained in hip-hop cinema. She traces a twenty-five-year trajectory of filmic representations of black boys becoming men where hip-hop offers a context and aesthetic for understanding black manhood. Chronicling three films, which were released in the early 1990s, early 2000s, and early 2010s, she argues that the fragility of black masculine identity in fi…
Write–Reach–Repeat
This chapter considers the role, importance, and impact of public intellectualism on the future of qualitative research. The chapter argues that the move toward technology and the public dissemination of information via the internet requires a shift in how and what we research with an expressed intention of reaching a broader and nonacademic audience. The chapter considers the relationship between the private and public sphere, and the so-called …
Teaching at the end of the world
By the time George Floyd was murdered at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day 2020, black folk had already been in mourning for 400 years. B
Critical Autoethnography
Visual voices and aural (auto)ethnographies
This themed issue speaks to the political significance and power of stories and epistemological privileges, and the impact and influence of identity, technology, and culture in our storied communication. The digital focus of the last 20 years continually impacts how we tell and disseminate stories, how we make and record observations (research), and how we teach and reach audiences (publication). Featured essays foreground the ways we can use our…
Keep Remembering”
The memorial is a maze of concrete and steel. Visitors are asked to stay off the grass, and follow the steps and sidewalks through the cemented cemetery that houses rusting representations of racism, death, and injustice. Statues of slaves bound by shackles, an infant dangling from its mother’s arms, reach toward the entrance as exit as you make your way to the memorial site. A narrative engraved on wall stone offers a storied history of white su…
Becoming
In this introduction to the special issue the authors craft a critical autoethnography to chronicle their relationship and/to critical autoethnography. They use Michelle Obama’s book and documentary Becoming to reflect on how the critical reflexivity inherent in autoethnographic work can be used to document relationships, moments of revelation, and self-empowerment. They then preview four articles that map experiences of becoming linked to racial…
Embracing Intersectionality in Co-Cultural and Dominant Group Theorizing
It can be difficult to identify consequential social identities when both conversation participants feel culturally disadvantaged. This phenomenon is especially present in intercultural interactions that are power-laden, but are also present when there are multiple perceptions of social disadvantage at play within a given interaction. Depending on the saliency of a cultural marker such as race or sex, for example, an African American man may feel…
All things are possible
The author reflects on the ingenuity and improvisation of black women as research methodology. She summarizes the contributions of the special issue to discuss the role and importance of creativity and lived experience in the work of black women researchers
How to be a (Black woman) journal editor during a pandemic
In this introduction to her first issue, incoming editor Robin M. Boylorn reflects on some of the challenges and rewards she experienced during her editor-elect year, and outlines her goals and intentions for volumes 20 and 21
Vicennium
In this outgoing editorial for the 20th Anniversary volume of Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Robin M. Boylorn reflects on her editorship using the lens and metaphor of an archivist and an architect
Stitching Theory
In this essay, we consider the emancipatory potential and power of creativity that has been passed down intergenerationally between Black women. From foremothers to grandmothers, we reflect on the life-giving and life-sustaining power of Black women’s creativity to highlight how their artistry is an inheritance and means of everyday survival. By focusing on the generative and generational potential of found art, we propose stitching theory as an …
Sociology (22 works) · Art (17 works) · Aesthetics (12 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · Gender Studies (11 works) · Autoethnography (10 works) · Gender Studies (10 works) · Political science (9 works) · Literature (8 works)