Alicia M. Reyes-Barriéntez shares five things she wishes she'd known when she left home to attend a predominantly white institution.
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
December 20, 2019
December 6, 2019
Bedelia Nicola Richards describes how, by redefining networking, she's been able to move away from her negative disposition toward it and cultivate genuine connections with colleagues.
November 15, 2019
Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako, a black medical student at a university hospital, considers the impact of a white colleague displaying a symbol of racial justice in his attire.
November 8, 2019
A controversy over a social media post at the University of Missouri should encourage other institutions to reconsider how they and their own departments are operating, writes Courtney N. Wright.
November 1, 2019
Michael Johnson Jr. calls on tenured and tenure-track faculty to combat an incremental erosion of faculty governance.
October 11, 2019
I've recently had a nagging feeling, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, that we still haven’t figured out how to ask students: Do you, in fact, want a life in STEM?
September 27, 2019
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt offers a satirical view.
September 13, 2019
Jennifer M. Gómez writes of her tendency as a new faculty member of color to highlight the systemic wrongs she's experienced while ignoring the potential for change her position now allows.
August 30, 2019
Michael Johnson Jr. provides some concrete suggestions for how institutions can improve their campus climate and quality of life for such faculty.
August 23, 2019
Thomas Seweid-DeAngelis describes how to go about building and maintaining a successful one for graduate students.
