Stories from the Front of the Room

How Higher Education Faculty of Color Overcome Challenges and Thrive in the Academy

Michelle Harris; Sherrill L. Sellers; Orly Clerge and Frederick W. Gooding Jr.

Research demonstrates that faculty of color in historically white institutions experience higher levels of discrimination, cultural taxation, and emotional labor than their white colleagues. Despite efforts to recruit minority faculty, all of these factors undermine their scholarship, pedagogy, social experiences, promotion and retention. This edited volume builds upon the existing research on faculty of color, however, it also departs from the existing literature and unravels the socio-emotional experiences of being in front of the classroom, in labs, and in the Ivory Tower for faculty who are in multiple racialized social locations. In an effort to circulate the experiences of faculty of color more widely to academic and non-academic audiences, this edited volume replaces conventional scholarly technical papers with unconventionally accessible letters. Stories from the Front of the Room focuses on the boundaries which faculty of color encounter in everyday experiences on campus and presents a more complete picture of life in the academy - one that documents how faculty of color are tested, but also how they can not only overcome, but thrive in their respective educational institutions.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 176 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4758-2516-9 • Hardback • February 2017 • $78.00 • (£60.00)

978-1-4758-2517-6 • Paperback • February 2017 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Education / Higher, Education / Multicultural Education

Stories from the Front of the Room

How Higher Education Faculty of Color Overcome Challenges and Thrive in the Academy

Hardback

Paperback

Summary

Research demonstrates that faculty of color in historically white institutions experience higher levels of discrimination, cultural taxation, and emotional labor than their white colleagues. Despite efforts to recruit minority faculty, all of these factors undermine their scholarship, pedagogy, social experiences, promotion and retention. This edited volume builds upon the existing research on faculty of color, however, it also departs from the existing literature and unravels the socio-emotional experiences of being in front of the classroom, in labs, and in the Ivory Tower for faculty who are in multiple racialized social locations. In an effort to circulate the experiences of faculty of color more widely to academic and non-academic audiences, this edited volume replaces conventional scholarly technical papers with unconventionally accessible letters. Stories from the Front of the Room focuses on the boundaries which faculty of color encounter in everyday experiences on campus and presents a more complete picture of life in the academy - one that documents how faculty of color are tested, but also how they can not only overcome, but thrive in their respective educational institutions.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 176 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4758-2516-9 • Hardback • February 2017 • $78.00 • (£60.00)

978-1-4758-2517-6 • Paperback • February 2017 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Education / Higher, Education / Multicultural Education

Author

Michelle Harris is a sociologist who directs the Institute for Global Indigeneity. She is also a Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at theUniversity at Albany, SUNY. Harris has written on acculturation and stress among immigrant Americans and how racial discrimination affects the mental health and well-being of blacks in the United States. Her most recent scholarship explores the politics of indigenous identity.

Sherrill L. Sellers is a Professor and Associate Dean in the College of Education, Health & Society at Miami University in Oxford OH. She studies the mental and physical health consequences of social inequalities; intersections of race, genetics, and health; and aging and the life course.

Orly Clerge is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Africana Studies at Tufts University in Medford, MA. She is broadly interested in the areas of race and ethnicity, immigration and migration, urban sociology and social demography.

Frederick W. Gooding, Jr. is an Assistant Professor within the Ethnic Studies Program at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. A trained historian, Gooding most effectively analyzes contemporary mainstream media with a careful eye for persistent patterns along racial lines that appear benign but indeed have problematic historical roots.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction to the volume
Orly Clerge, Frederick Gooding, Jr., Michelle Harris, Sherrill L. Sellers
PART I: Colleagues
Part I Introduction: highlights of research literature on colleagues and faculty of color
Chapter 1: Dear Fellow Underrepresented Junior Faculty Members
Pamela Harris & Alicia Prieto Langarica
Chapter 2: Dear Colleagues
Matthew Oware
Chapter 3: Dear Mentor
Anonymous
Chapter 4: Dear Colleague
JeffriAnne Wilder
Chapter 5: Dear Nicole (A Note to Nicole on Becoming Tax-free)
Tamika Carey
Chapter 6: To My Esteemed Colleagues and Inquisitive Students
Carlotta A. Berry
Chapter 7: Mentor Essay: Standing Firm upon Unsteady Ground
Alford Young
PART II: Students
Part II Introduction: Research exploring bias in student ratings of teachers
Chapter 8: An Open Letter to the Black Woman in the Front Row
Jennifer Sims
Chapter 9: Dear Black and Racialized Students
Delores Mullings
Chapter 10: Dear Fellow Front of the Room Academicians
Khadijah Miller
Chapter 11: In Solidarity, Dear Student
Vivian Ng
Chapter 12: Mentor Essays: Don’t Forget to Reflect on and Fight Your Own Biases
Mary Pattillo
PART III: Tenure
Part III Introduction: literature on teaching, research and service
Chapter 13: Love & Labor in Academia: Dear Faculty Members Who Mentor Doctoral Students of Color
Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher
Chapter 14: Dear Friends and Colleagues
Jose Santos
Chapter 15: Being in the Room: Dear Colleagues
Sonja Lanehart
Chapter 16: Liberation and the Denial of an Academic Career: Dear Colleagues
Anonymous
Chapter 17: Mentor Essay: Tenure
Juan Battle
PART IV: Administration
Part IV Introduction: Literature on administrative contexts with focus on recruitment and retention
Chapter 18: Dear University Hiring Committees and Administrators
Amanishakete Ani
Chapter 19: Racing It in Academia: Dear Director of the School of Social Work
Patrina Duhaney
Chapter 20: Dear Lex
Teresa Gilliams
Chapter 21: Dear Unsupported Faculty “Teaching in Color”
Chavella Pittman
Chapter 22: Dear Chief Diversity Officers: Pedigree or Ph.D.? Or, "You Can't Handle the Truth."
David Hernández
Chapter 23: Mentor Essay:Reflections on Higher Ed Administration
Harvey Charles
PART V: Climate
PART IV Introduction: Major themes in the research on faculty of color and campus climate
Chapter 24: Good Muslims and White Academics: Dear Directors
Uzma Jamil
Chapter 25: Hello, Black Women’s Lives (Don’t) Matter in the Academy
Lani V. Jones
Chapter 26: Dear Junior Scholar
Danne E. Davis
Chapter 27: A Letter from the Ivory Tower
Andrea G. Hunter
Chapter 28: Mentor Essay: The Talk
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Afterword
About the editors
About the contributors
Index

Reviews

A real-world, up-close look inside the everyday reality of working in historically white Academia, as seen by its most astute observers—the faculty of color who must cope, survive, leave, and thrive in a pervasive white-racist environment.
— Joe Feagin, Department of Sociology, Texas A&M University

Stories from the Front of the Room is truly a unique and provocative book. In letter format, the writings provide an impressive and extensive view of how professors of different races and genders across differing disciplines learn to ‘survive and thrive’ in the academy. The richness of the narratives provides candid and expressive stories of life in the professoriate for faculty of color. From doctoral students to academicians, this is a book all professors should have in their bookcase!
— Rosemary Papa, Del and Jewel Lewis Endowed Chair, Educational Leadership, Northern Arizona University

Stories from the Front of the Room is essential reading for all faculty in the country who care about educating a diverse nation, providing opportunity, and ensuring equity. The editors have fastened together a beautiful group of voices that shed light on how far we have to come to ensure that everyone feels included in academe.
— Marybeth Gasman Ph.D, Professor; Director, Penn Center for Minority-Serving Institutions Higher Education Division Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania