SHOW NOTES:
This week on the podcast is Leah Ward, the community coordinator at the University of Dayton, Ohio. This is the second episode within the series the EDpat Literature Review and today, you’ll hear a conversation between Leah and I about her chapter titled Swiss Miss: A Story of Surviving Abroad.
Leah’s chapter is one of eleven chapters in the book The Table: Stories from Black Women in Student Affairs, which is a collection of Black women discussing their experiences within various roles at universities. I am so excited about this interview with Leah because the entire time I spoke with her I kept thinking about the quote that James Baldwin said to Nina Simone “This is the world you have made for yourself, now you have to live in it.” As Leah took me through her experience as a Black woman in Switzerland, I realized that the universe had brought Leah and I together because at that same time, I was reading Nina Simone’s autobiography and learned that after she left Liberia, she moved to Switzerland so that her daughter could continue her education.
In contrast to Nina Simone’s story, Leah applied for a position as a student life coordinator during her time at Virginia Tech. The position required that she assist a group of study abroad students in Switzerland. With the intention to assist the students, in actuality, she found herself within cultural and racial tensions which involved being an African American woman in a small Swiss village. Without any further delay, enjoy my conversation with Leah Ward.
RESOURCES FROM EPISODE:
https://www.thetablebooks.com/buy https://udayton.edu/directory/studev/housing_res_life/l_ward.php
Swiss Miss: A Story of Surviving Abroad- Purchase the book- The Table: Stories from Black Women in Student Affairs thetablebooks.com
SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES:
IG: LeahWard
(A)Broad in Education is produced by Tiffany Lachelle Smith, Music by Reallionaire Jream. You can access Lady Justice on his Post Cards Album on Sound Cloud. Music from Pixabay.com.
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