Critical Race Theory and the Cultivation, Mentorship, and Retention of Black Faculty

• In Event: Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Faculty Development and Mentoring

Abstract

Within this theoretical paper, concepts key within critical race theory, particularly those of stereotype threat, racial battle fatigue, internalized racism, and microagressions, are applied within a higher education context, particularly in relation to cultivation, mentorship and retention of Black faculty and the pipeline of Black graduate students to faculty positions. The authors explore the statistical realities and research through letters as inquiry and the personal narrative, that exchanged between a mother (seeking tenure) and a daughter (in her first year of appointment as an assistant professor) at similarly sized colleges, rural and urban on the East and West Coast, respectively.

Authors

• Raina Juanita Leon, Saint Mary's College of California

• Norma D. Thomas, California University of Pennsylvania