Managing Social-Professional Relationships on the Tenure Track While Grieving: An Intersectional Lens

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Five
  In Roundtable Session: Reimagining School Safety and Relational Ontologies Across Communities (Table 3)

Abstract

By definition, tenure-track faculty members face occupational vulnerability during the probationary years as their institutional fate is discussed, debated, and voted on at multiple institutional levels. Hence, managing long-term socio-professional relationships is vital for junior faculty members. However, when a tenure-track faculty member is also living with grief, managing social-professional relationships can be compromised. Grief affects appetite, digestion, blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, muscle fatigue, and sleep. In addition to the physical effects, cognitive changes, memory loss, confusion, and shortened attention span are also common. Though all people manage grief and all tenure-track faculty manage occupational vulnerability, we use an intersectional lens to highlight amplified grief costs for tenure-track faculty with regard to rank, race, and gender for Black women.

Authors

• Sakeena Everett, University of Connecticut
  Presenting Author

• Mandie Bevels Dunn, University of South Florida - Tampa
  Presenting Author