Stories from the Front of the Room: How Higher Education Faculty of Color Overcome Challenges and Thrive in the Academy

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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.

Reviews

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

Author Bio

Michelle Harris is a sociologist who directs the Institute for Global Indigeneity. She is also a Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at the University 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.