Dear Higher Education: Letters from the Social Justice Mountain

The Academy Does Not Have the Capacity to Love You: An Unrequited Love with Higher Education

Tangela Montgomery

SUNY Buffalo

Abstract

The Academy Does Not Have the Capacity to Love You is an epistolary reflection written from the perspective of a Black queer woman who climbed every rung of the academic ladder only to discover that the institution she devoted herself to could not love her in return. Using the metaphor of an unrequited love story, the letter traces her path from primary school in her hometown to obtaining a doctorate and becoming one of the few Black women professors in the United States. Along the way, she confronts the racial isolation, gatekeeping, and emotional labor that shape the experience of being the Lonely Only in predominantly white academic spaces. The letter examines how limerence, an imagined and idealized attachment, mirrors the way marginalized scholars are encouraged to romanticize the academy despite its inability to offer genuine care. Through moments of dismissal, tokenism, and the weaponization of critique, the author reveals how the pursuit of belonging often demands a performance of resilience that comes at a personal cost. The letter does not end in despair. Instead, it turns toward transformation. By recognizing the limits of the academy’s capacity to love, the author discovers a deeper capacity to love herself and to support those who climb after her. This letter argues that the voices of women of color, especially those who navigate the academy as singular and intersectional presences, must be heard for what they reveal about institutional harm and for the futures they make possible.