Barbara Combs
Barbara Harris Combs is Interim Chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology with a concentration in race and urban studies from Georgia State University in 2010. She also holds a Juris Doctorate degree from Ohio State University and an MA in English from Xavier University (Ohio). She brings this interdisciplinary background to her study of society. Her research focuses on the role place (as a geographical, social/cultural, and class construct) has on modern identity formation and human relations, especially race relations. She has published in a variety of academic journals including, Critical Sociology, Sociological Spectrum, Southern Culture, and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.
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a southern campus in the Deep South to provide insight into the ways place, race, and gender continue to shape experiences of people of color and in so doing highlight the fallacy that the United States is a
colorblind or post-racial society. To do so, I utilize counter-storytelling—a tool advanced by critical race theory (CRT) scholars; while CRT is useful to understand the conditions that produce the unequal weight
borne by faculty of color, it is insufficient to understand the social processes that create and maintain it. I argue that the dynamic nature of racism requires new theoretical approaches to understand it. For this, I
advance a new theory—bodies out of place (BOP). I utilize my narrative to provide greater clarity regarding how BOP fills gaps left by CRT and other racial ideologies. My narrative illustrates how the intersections
of race, gender, and place can operate to create a disproportionate burden (professionally, personally, physically, and psychologically) on faculty women of color. Ironically, I conclude that this disproportionate
burden often falls on a continuum between empowering and encumbering. However, both ends of the spectrum contribute to racial battle fatigue.
a southern campus in the Deep South to provide insight into the ways place, race, and gender continue to shape experiences of people of color and in so doing highlight the fallacy that the United States is a
colorblind or post-racial society. To do so, I utilize counter-storytelling—a tool advanced by critical race theory (CRT) scholars; while CRT is useful to understand the conditions that produce the unequal weight
borne by faculty of color, it is insufficient to understand the social processes that create and maintain it. I argue that the dynamic nature of racism requires new theoretical approaches to understand it. For this, I
advance a new theory—bodies out of place (BOP). I utilize my narrative to provide greater clarity regarding how BOP fills gaps left by CRT and other racial ideologies. My narrative illustrates how the intersections
of race, gender, and place can operate to create a disproportionate burden (professionally, personally, physically, and psychologically) on faculty women of color. Ironically, I conclude that this disproportionate
burden often falls on a continuum between empowering and encumbering. However, both ends of the spectrum contribute to racial battle fatigue.