What are the opening hours?

Saturday 9am - 5pm Sunday 9am - 5pm

https://www.facebook.com/196849804114541/

FWCA

FWCA National Conference supports those who often "carry more" in higher education to connect, support, and empower each other.

This conference and healing hours supports and connects "those who carry more" and are often the "lonely only" in higher education, including faculty, administrators, post-docs, and graduate students in higher education, and those in education adjacent industries.

08/26/2026

What does it mean to navigate the academy while remaining accountable to your community, your relations, and yourself?

In **“A Letter from your Academic Aunties,”** a collective of Indigenous scholars offers wisdom, joy, and hard-earned advice to Indigenous students and early-career academics.

The letter explores mentorship, identity, boundaries, institutional power, and the importance of knowing when to take a seat at the table, change the rules, or build something different.

At its heart is a powerful reminder: **You are not alone.** Scholarship can be about more than surviving institutions. It can also be about honoring knowledge, cultivating community and joy, and making space for those who come next.

📖 Read the newest letter from **Dear Higher Education: Letters from the Social Justice Mountain**:

Read “A Letter from your Academic Aunties”
(https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/dhe/article/view/7436/4398?

08/24/2026

There are moments when the most important thing we can do is create space to come into community with those who understand our journeys and experiences.

Join SPARK FWCA for a Healing Hour, a virtual gathering designed to make room for reflection, restoration, connection, and collective care.

Thursday, September 3, 2026
1:00 PM EST
Virtual | Open to All

Higher education asks much of us. Healing Hour offers an opportunity to step away from the demands of the work, reconnect with ourselves and one another, and access practices that nourish mind, body, and spirit.

Come as you are. Take what you need. Leave with a little more space for what comes next.

Register for the Zoom gathering:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/50plxRNUREOLkJAhO5LV7g

Learn more about SPARK FWCA Healing Hours:
https://sparkacademic.org/healing-hours

08/22/2026

**Two calls. One mission. The academy must listen.**

What does higher education need to hear right now?

*Dear Higher Education: Letters from the Social Justice Mountain* is inviting writers to answer that question through two opportunities for our upcoming Fall/Winter 2026 publication:

🌍 **Special Issue: Women of the African Diaspora: Letters to Higher Education**
We invite women of the African diaspora to share their journeys, contributions, and visions for the future, with particular interest in experiences within higher education outside the United States and across transnational contexts.

**Fall Edition: Letters from the Social Justice Mountain**
We invite faculty, students, administrators, practitioners, scholars, and others connected to higher education to tell us what the academy needs to hear. Share what you are experiencing, what you are learning, and what you believe we must imagine for the future.

This is an invitation to **write a letter to higher education** grounded in lived experience, thoughtful reflection, scholarship, practice, and possibility.

**Submission deadline: September 30, 2026**
Learn more about Dear Higher Education, the calls, and our most recent issue at:

https://sparkacademic.org/about-dhe

04/20/2026

Thank you for being part of the 14th annual SPARKFWCA Conference.

If you attended the conference, your access to all session recordings is included—at no additional cost.

If you weren’t able to join us live, it’s not too late. You can still register and gain access to the full conference experience, including recordings.

🎥 Register for access: https://events.guidebook.com/sparkfwca

04/09/2026

SPARKFWCA kicked off an amazing pre-conference workshop and healing hour today! But, there's still time to join the SPARK FWCA Conference community. Register today and join for 3 amazing days at https://events.guidebook.com/sparkfwca
****use discount code SPARKFWCA2026 to register for $150 and get access to all recorded sessions*******

04/09/2026

SPARKFWCA Starts Today

🕓 4:00 PM EST
💡 FREE Preconference Workshop
Empower Your Finances: Women Taking Control

Still time to register for the free workshop and join the full conference on liberation, healing, justice, AI, writing, & publication about the experiences of women of color in higher education. Registration $150 with SPARKFWCA2026 discount code.

www.sparkacademic.org/healing-hour www.sparkacademic.org/FWCA

➡️ It’s not too late — Put Yourself First. Stay for the Healing Hour facilitated by Menah Pratt, after the workshop, and register for the full conference.

04/08/2026

Tomorrow we gather.
For research.
For strategy.
For restoration.

SPARK FWCA begins tomorrow April 9.

It's not too late to register. Join a virtual gathering designed for reflection, strategy, and community across higher education and adjacent fields. This is the time and the space to come into community with others, to connect, to support, to empower, to learn, and most importantly to just be you.

Only $150 registration with discount code SPARKFWCA2026
https://sparkacademic.org/fwca
Hashtags:

04/07/2026

Today is my 59th birthday and I remain surprised at how fast the years have gone by! I started my birthday celebration by investing and gifting myself my first-ever professional photo shoot. Thank you images and stubbs And today, instead of thinking about myself, I’m focused on what I can create for others.

I've been working in higher education since I was an undergraduate in the Special Support Office/Upward Bound at Iowa. And I have been working in the academy for more than 40 years! For 40 years, I have seen and experienced the same pattern: many of us in higher education are navigating systems that take alot from us, without giving us the same measure in return. So for the past 14 years, I’ve been building something intentional (the conference) that is focused on the research and experiences of women of color in higher education, bringing impacting almost 10,000 scholars over the years. I thought last year's conference was going to be the last because of the socio-political-financial climate. However, an amazing community of sister-scholars refused to let it die. They founded a non-profit, appropriately called SPARK and have been working incredibly hard to curate an amazing and transformational virtual conference for this year with almost 20 sessions on justice, liberation, wellness, AI, imagination, and publishing over 4 days. The **SPARK FWCA Conference** begins April 9. It is a space for grounding, clarity, strategy, and community for those who are ready to pour back into themselves.

We’re opening with a powerful (and free) financial wellness session by financial educator and
and I’ll be hosting a Healing Hour immediately after to help us *reset and reconnect* and ready ourselves before the full conference begins. Register for the free healing hour at https://sparkacademic.org/healing-hours

Make a decision to continue investing in your personal and professional development. If you’ve been feeling stretched, uncertain, or simply ready for something different, you are invited to join this special community.
Register at: https://events.guidebook.com/sparkfwca
Use code **SPARKFWCA2026** for $150 registration fee.

04/06/2026

SPARK FWCA begins this week (April 9–12).

If you’ve been meaning to register, this is the moment. Join a virtual gathering designed for reflection, strategy, and community across higher education and adjacent fields. This is the time and the space to come into community with others, to connect, to support, to empower, to learn, and most importantly to just be you.

$250 registration | Scholarships available
https://sparkacademic.org/fwca
Hashtags:

04/03/2026

Learn from the scholar who coined the term, Misogynoir, Dr. Moya Bailey with her keynote "Transforming Misogynoir in Higher Education:" "It's such a specific denigration of black women, not other women of color, not black men. So I started to think about that and landed on misogynoir as a way to talk about anti-blackness and misogyny that black women experience simultaneously." Dr. Moya Bailey will be the closing keynote for April 9-12 virtual conference www.sparkacademic.org/fwca Use discount code: SPARKFWCA2026 to get $100 off $250 registration fee.

Address

Blacksburg, VA

Opening Hours

Saturday	9am - 5pm
Sunday	9am - 5pm

Website

facebook.com

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when FWCA posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your school to be the top-listed School/college in Blacksburg?