They must remove the major roadblocks such academics face, writes Chavella T. Pittman, who provides some key recommendations for doing so.
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 30, 2021
April 16, 2021
Any institutional efforts to retain BIPOC women faculty members can be nullified when teaching obstacles are allowed to run rampant, argues Chavella T. Pittman.
April 2, 2021
Official statements condemning it ring hollow if they don’t, in fact, stop the anti-Asian racism that already exists within many of these institutions, argue Robert Diaz and Hae Yeon Choo.
March 19, 2021
American higher education has failed Native American students again and again, and colleges and universities must critically examine their campuses and curricula, argues James A. Bryant Jr.
March 5, 2021
Aomawa Shields describes how she found her voice to speak the truth about systemic exclusionary and racist attitudes -- and the importance of other professors doing so, as well.
February 19, 2021
There is a cost to remaining publicly silent in the face of overtly racist and exclusionary attitudes, writes Aomawa Shields.
February 5, 2021
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt introduces herself and shares her vision for the column going forward.
January 15, 2021
Frances B. Henderson offers some final advice for BIPOC faculty who are preparing to teach during the upcoming spring semester.
January 8, 2021
Frances B. Henderson offers tips for faculty members who are Black, Indigenous and people of color to help alleviate anxiety as they prepare for 2021.
December 18, 2020
We must make our institutions actively antiracist, writes Deborah Saint-Phard, in order to bring about actual change and healing for each of us and our nation.
