As attacks on critical race theory accelerate, colleges must create more mentoring environments designed by BIPOC faculty themselves, write Irene Mata, Melva Treviño and M. Gabriela Torres.
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
April 29, 2022
Brittany K. Robertson offers some recommendations based on a study she conducted on the experiences and perspectives of Black women staff members in higher education.
April 15, 2022
Colleges must mend the gap between conventional views about what faculty need for support and what faculty actually want, writes Niya Bond.
March 18, 2022
The academy continues to be ableist and disadvantage people with various learning abilities and those in neurodiverse learning communities, argues Karly Ball.
February 18, 2022
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt writes of how serving on search committees in predominantly white institutions can often be a harrowing experience for many faculty members of color.
February 4, 2022
We must build diverse applicant pipelines and inclusive support systems that help students at minority-serving institutions gain access to such opportunities, writes Melanie Meinzer.
January 21, 2022
Using such evaluations reflects colleges’ lack of a true commitment to diversity, writes Joanna Wolfe, who offers three actions institutions should take sooner rather than later to change the situation.
January 7, 2022
An anonymous professor shares guidance on what to do for yourself if your child or another person close to you is sexually assaulted.
December 17, 2021
Women of color are doing much of the work that benefits institutions, yet they aren’t being recognized or rewarded for it, writes M. Cristina Alcalde, citing three areas that should be addressed.
December 3, 2021
Carra Hood offers 10 steps for addressing bias and unequal treatment in higher education institutions.
