Teaching while Black: navigating performativity and authenticity

Diverse faculty recruitment has become one of the ways through which universities in the Global North perform anti-racism, often framed within broader equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives. However, Black female academics continue to experience racism, tokenism, and systemic inequities, contributing to psychological distress and high turnover within the academy. This paper utilises the theories of Critical Race and Performativity to investigate the concept of authenticity for Black instructors teaching ‘English for academic purposes’ in higher education. Through autobiographical counter-narratives of classroom incidents in two institutions in the United States, this paper examines how a teacher’s race and gender shape their experiences in the workplace when racially charged incidents occur. It also highlights the role of institutional non-performance and impact on teacher authenticity, advocating for a more inclusive conceptualisation of authenticity.