Second to None

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to foreground the experiences of women of Color who serve in full-time, contingent faculty roles and interrogate the policies and practices that present both barriers and opportunities for these faculty members within the academy. Using a conceptual framework of previous literature in combination with critical race feminism and structuration theory, the authors discuss the ways in which identity (race, gender, and age) and position (contingent vs. tenure-track) influence faculty life and teaching. Throughout this discussion, the authors also introduce results from a study they conducted on Black women contingent faculty. The chapter concludes with the authors offering suggestions for institutional policy and practice.

“We're just not acknowledged”: An examination of the identity taxation of full-time non-tenure-track Women of Color faculty members.

“…Additionally, administrators must acknowledge and reward the presence and contributions of NTWCFs (Boss et al, 2019). NTWCFs do a great deal of labor to help colleges and universities function.…”

“…With the unbundling of faculty work, or increased specialization of faculty roles, non-tenure-track positions have high teaching loads (Gehrke & Kezar, 2015; Schuster & Finkelstein, 2006). This can be particularly problematic for Women of Color in non-tenure-track positions (Boss et al, 2019; Navarro, 2017). Students enter classrooms with their racial and gender biases about faculty members.…”

“…But the experiences of Women of Color in non-tenure-track positions have largely been left out of this literature. Women of Color are overrepresented in the non-tenure-track ranks, accounting for nearly 41% of all women in non-tenure-track positions (Boss, Davis, Porter, & Moore, 2019; Finkelstein, Conley, & Schuster, 2016). On the other hand, the research about Women of Color faculty members more generally has clearly illustrated how they experience forms of gendered racism that leads to their marginality within the academy, thus exposing the oppressive conditions that many Women of Color faculty face (Gutiérrez y Muhs, Niemann, González, & Harris, 2012; Hirshfield & Joseph, 2012; Pittman, 2010; Turner, 2002; Zambrana, 2018).…”

Faith got us through: Using scholarly personal narrative to explore spirituality and transition in a higher education graduate program

“…Building on the recent work of Porter (2019) and Boss, Davis, Porter, and Moore (2019), we attempt to add to the dearth of literature regarding academic transitions among Black NTT faculty members as well as Black master's students. Given the aim of this chapter, we use scholarly personal narrative (SPN; Nash, 2004) as a methodological technique and scripture from the Hebrew biblical text as a conceptual lens to catalogue how our relationship has been strengthened through the sharing of our faith.…”

“…As much as this piece may have the potential to offer inspiration for those attempting to better understand the experiences of Black NTT faculty and graduate students, it also became a therapeutic exercise for us to recount the transformative process of cultivating an authentic identity in academe and how it can shape the success of both Black faculty and students. By sharing our personal narratives and extracting implications that can connect to others, we hope to follow the example of several scholars (Boss et al, 2019;Porter, 2019;Quaye, 2017) in using the tradition of storytelling to illuminate the voices of those who are often silenced or overlooked in higher education.…”