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.
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.
To reach this column, click here.
Conditionally Accepted Archive
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.
May 13, 2022
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.
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.
