New study examines how racialized institutional environments shape Black women’s educational, professional, emotional, and embodied experiences over time.
Salt Lake City, Utah — The Center for Research on Race, Health Justice & Public Policy (CRHJP) at The University of Utah announces the publication of a new peer-reviewed article, “From Classrooms to Chaos: Racialized Institutional Environments, Anti-Black Misogyny, and Racial Battle Fatigue Across the Life Course,” in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.
The article, authored by William A. Smith, Josephine Amoakoh, Angel Jones, Abena BakenRa, and Glory Stanton, examines how anti-Black misogyny shapes Black women’s experiences across childhood, adolescence, postsecondary schooling, professional life, and crisis conditions. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 25 Black women across multiple U.S. regions, the study traces how racialized gender regulation emerges early in life, intensifies through schooling, and evolves within professional environments in historically White institutions.
The study defines anti-Black misogyny as a structural system through which people, institutions, and environments interpret and regulate Black women’s bodies, emotions, and intellectual contributions across a continuum ranging from apathy and indifference to hostility and overt hatred. Findings show that participants experienced patterned surveillance, disciplinary control, tone policing, academic misrecognition, and intellectual devaluation across developmental stages.
A central contribution of the article is its extension of Racial Battle Fatigue theory. The study identifies two mechanisms that help explain how anti-Black misogyny operates across the life course: the Conditional Inclusion Threshold and White Racial Homeostasis Threat. Together, these mechanisms illuminate how historically White institutions and environments regulate Black women’s presence, voice, achievement, and influence while requiring sustained psychological, emotional, behavioral, and self-reported embodied labor.
“This article helps name what Black women have long known, embodied, and lived: anti-Black misogyny is not a series of isolated encounters, but a cumulative system of racialized gender regulation,” said Dr. William A. Smith, Co-Founder and Executive Committee Member of the Center for Research on Race, Health Justice, & Public Policy, Chief Executive Administrator at Huntsman Mental Health Institute, Distinguished University Professor, and Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chair. “When these experiences accumulate across schooling, work, and crisis conditions, they produce a systemic racism-related repetitive stress injury. That is the heart of Racial Battle Fatigue.”
The article advances scholarship on racism, education, health justice, and institutional accountability by showing how early racialized experiences shape later vulnerability to stress injury. It also challenges assumptions that educational attainment or professional success shields Black women from racialized gender harm. Instead, the findings show that advancement can introduce new forms of scrutiny, emotional regulation, and institutional navigation.
The article is available Open Access through Taylor & Francis/Routledge.
Article citation:
Smith, W. A., Amoakoh, J., Jones, A., BakenRa, A., & Stanton, G. (2026). From classrooms to chaos: Racialized institutional environments, anti-black misogyny, and racial battle fatigue across the life course. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 39(1), 2698428. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2026.2698428
About the Center for Research on Race, Health Justice & Public Policy
The Center for Research on Race, Health Justice & Public Policy at The University of Utah advances interdisciplinary research, public scholarship, and policy-relevant inquiry focused on racism, health justice, institutional accountability, and the social conditions that shape educational, professional, and community well-being.