Know that while you may be the only one in your program or school, or on your campus, you are not alone, writes Tia Sherèe Gaynor.
Conditionally Accepted
Conditionally Accepted
Many individuals are drawn to higher education, including academic careers, because of academe’s potential for change. Countless prospective and current graduate students note that their desire to make a difference in their communities or society in general was their primary decision to attend graduate training. Unfortunately, many colleges and universities in the U.S. have practiced outright discrimination and exclusion throughout history, particularly against women, people of color, and disabled people/people with disabilities.
Today, academe — like every social institution — is structured hierarchically, producing numerous professional and personal obstacles for academics from marginalized backgrounds. Scholars who are women, of color, lesbian, trans, bisexual, gay, queer, disabled, working-class or poor, immigrants, fat, religious and non-religious minorities, and/or single parents are faced daily with the difficult tension between academe's narrow definition of success and their own politics, identities, needs, happiness, and health.
Conditionally Accepted was created as a freestanding blog in July 2013 as an online space for scholars on the margins of academe. It has steadily grown since, becoming a career advice column for Inside Higher Ed in January 2016. In this column, we provide news, information, personal stories, and resources for scholars who are, at best, conditionally accepted in academe. Conditionally Accepted is an anti-racist, pro-feminist, pro-queer, anti-transphobic, anti-fatphobic, anti-ableist, anti-ageist, anti-classist, and anti-xenophobic online community.
You can also like us on Facebook here and follow us on Twitter @conditionaccept.
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Conditionally Accepted Archive
December 2, 2022
Universities should recognize and reconsider the differential treatment they offer Global South students fleeing persecution, writes Isabella Aung.
November 11, 2022
Some tenets of inclusive teaching can undercut the career trajectories, classroom respect and mental health of instructors who are minoritized in our fields, writes Kerstin M. Perez.
October 28, 2022
BIPOC women administrators must step up and support other women of color in higher education, writes Shartriya Collier.
September 30, 2022
Such comments reveal an alarming level of misunderstanding, if not ignorance, of the Arab American community, reducing us to stereotypes and implying that we don’t belong, writes Mireille Rebeiz.
August 19, 2022
Colleges should make good on the promises they have made about diversity, equity and inclusion and actually do the work of making real change, Sydney Freeman Jr. writes.
August 5, 2022
Focusing on the immediate contexts underrepresented minority scholars must navigate is the best way to make academe a welcoming place, write Amalia Pallares, Angela L. Walden, Bernard D. Santarsiero and Aisha El-Amin.
June 24, 2022
Colleges and universities responded to the death of George Floyd with public commitments to racial justice, but two years later, too little has changed, argue Colleen E. Wynn and Elizabeth Ziff.
June 10, 2022
Andrea Y. Simpson reflects on how the phrase, as interpreted at so many institutions, can undermine the goals of diversity and inclusivity, as well as limit the scope of first-rate scholarship.
May 27, 2022
The work of diversity committees and offices has recently been amplified, yet much of it remains performative, Aparajita De argues—and South Asians should help change that.
