Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

English (Ph.D.)

Department

English

First Advisor

Raj Chetty

Abstract

This study investigates how Black girls in US independent schools experience Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, alongside the larger, traditional literary canon taught within high school English classrooms as texts that can shape their sense of self. In this project, wholeness is defined through a tripartite framework consisting of three interconnected parts: Self (a deepened sense of identity and ways of knowing), Community (experiences of belonging, safety, mentoring, and joy), and Purpose (the development of values, meaning, and a sense of connection both to the community and self). These aspects are viewed as a single integrated frame to examine student, alumnae, and teacher responses. Drawing on survey data collected from eight independent schools, this mixed-methods study explores how literature classrooms function as sites of identity formation and belonging, particularly for Black girls who historically and, still currently, are often misread and marginalized within their independent school communities. In addition to examining student and alumnae experiences, this study also analyzes teachers’ hopes and pedagogical choices in teaching Hurston and Morrison in literature classrooms for all students to flourish. The survey findings suggest that flourishing and wholeness depend not simply on the texts students read, but on the ways teachers interpret, contextualize, affirm, and teach them. This study, therefore, argues that wholeness is not solely a curricular outcome but an epistemological one, shaped by the ways knowledge is defined, embodied, and enacted within classrooms and schools. As a result, student flourishing and wholeness require teachers to expand their own ways of knowing through reflective practice, professional growth, and experiences that challenge familiar assumptions. Such growth may occur through both literal and metaphorical forms of pilgrimage or intentional experiences that disrupt comfort, deepen awareness, and restore Upper School teachers’ capacities to see their students fully.

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