Chicana Scholar-Activist Testimonios From the Academic Job Search

• In Event: The Pathways of Latina/Chicana Doctoras, From Graduate School to the Professoriate

Abstract

As my colleagues have delineated elsewhere on this proposal, there remains a significant underrepresentation of Chicanas/Latinas in graduate school and in the professoriate. I argue that we should place some of the blame on diversity initiatives in higher education that focus only on racial plurality ​​(Ahmed, 2012; Harris et al., 2015). A simple presence of diverse bodies is not enough. Leaving structures unexamined and intact forces Chicana doctoral students to assimilate in order to survive academia, as Laura Rendón (1992) herself recounted in her autobiographical piece.

One of these unexamined structures is the academic job search process. Most formal (e.g., workshops) and informal (e.g., mentoring) socialization toward the job search does not account for race/ethnicity or gender. Even in/formal socialization that does name racism and sexism often perpetuates Whiteness and masculinity in norms, culture, desires, and outcomes. In effect, advice often translates to, “Protect yourself, but aspire towards White and masculine metrics of achievement.”

Chicana doctoral students who identify as scholar-activists, to borrow from Nikole Hannah-Jones’s (2021) now-infamous written statement, say, “I refuse.” In this paper, I amplify the testimonios of 27 Chicana doctoral students, collected via pláticas and reflective journals over six months, focusing on the academic job search process. My retelling of these testimonios focuses on three themes, as communicated through these direct quotes:
“I don’t actually care about the tenure-track. I am looking for positions where my full humanity will be honored and respected.”
“I am looking to give back to my community, and an R1 is not where I could best do that. I know it’s what I’m ‘supposed to’ want, but I don’t.”
“I haven’t told my advisor that I’d like to teach at the community college-level. I don’t think they would understand why it’s important to me.”

I highlight these testimonios for two main reasons. First and foremost, they contest White, masculine norms regarding what academic jobs are most desirable and what matters most in the job search. Secondly, these testimonios invite us to self-reflect on our academic socialization experiences as we work to heal ourselves and remedy processes and cultures for future generations of scholars.

Author

• Estee Hernández, National Louis University