Resisting, Rejecting, and Redefining Normative Pathways to the Professoriate: Faculty of Color in Higher Education

Professor Beware: Liberating Faculty Voices of Color Working in Predominantly White Institutions and Geographic Settings

“…Cole et al (2017) articulated personal narratives of three first-year faculty of color and emphasized the importance of peer and colleague groups, social media networks, and multiple forms of institutional support-including emails, coffee dates, and 5-min conversations-that greatly supported new faculty of color in tenure-track positions. Specific to faculty of color in higher education departments (n = 20), J. M. Johnson et al (2018) also found social networks to be valuable sources of support for faculty of color navigating PWIs.…”

Intergenerational Lessons to and from Higher Education Educators of Color

“…This is another time when your communities can help guide you. To this point, in their recent publication in the Urban Review , Jennifer Johnson, Ginny Boss, Chrystal A. George Mwangi, and Gina Garcia discuss how Educators of Color may benefit from connecting with their communities to learn how and when to “resist, reject, and redefine” troublesome norms within higher education (Johnson et al, 2018, p. 630). Ultimately, our point is that you must decide how you may best access spaces and people of power at a particular time, place, and position in your life, as well as how you may do this without giving up too much of yourself.…”

Building and Sustaining Diverse Functioning Networks Using Social Media and Digital Platforms to Improve Diversity and Inclusivity

“…"It connects academics of color to one another and offers an opportunity for scholars, activists and writers" to engage in meaningful ways and around meaningful topics (Matthew, 2016a, p. 107-108). These platforms can, thus, help fill gaps of low representation, as well as promote the potential to connect to critical political guidance and heuristic knowledge needed to navigate barriers and obstacles in these environments (Lemon, 2014;Matthew, 2016b;Johnson et al, 2018). Additionally, social media spaces have been recently posited as "a powerful tool in a larger strategy to dismantle" barriers such as "any systemic structures perpetuating the marginalization of women in science" (Yammine et al, 2018, p. 162), and I would argue this extends to multiple groups underrepresented in the academy.…”

“…Social media also serve for scholars as "spaces in which they enact and pursue their scholarship in a visible manner" (Veletsianos, 2013, p. 645). Specific examples include finding and sharing publications-particularly in a timely fashion and ones to which one might not otherwise be exposed, ongoing discussions of ideas and events, rapid, and ongoing feedback on developing ideas, as well as invitations to present one's work or to collaborate (Priem and Costello, 2010;Veletsianos, 2013;Matthew, 2016a;Carrigan, 2017;Johnson et al, 2018;Shiffman, 2018). Matthew (2016b) describes her use of social media as "a proving ground for working out ideas that can lead to innovative research" (p. 244).…”

“…Given the recognition that some underrepresented individuals report experiencing hostile or discriminatory treatment in local spaces (Gonzales, 2018), the connection in larger networks for support and advocacy in social media spaces may counteract some of the challenges and "costs" that are viewed as high for others who may not experience persistent local marginalization. Indeed, social networks have been posited as critical for navigating unwelcoming environments, as well as the unwritten and invisible norms and practices needed to persist and succeed in these spaces (Matthew, 2016c;Gonzales, 2018;Johnson et al, 2018). Given that the percentage of Black and Hispanic Internet Users who use social media sites is higher than White Internet users engaged in social media (Pew Research Center, 2018), there is substantial potential for social media to provide platforms for engagement of African-American and Latinx individuals in social networks and for promoting access and success of individuals from diverse backgrounds in the academy, including specific areas of interest such as the sciences.…”