BIPOC Women Faculty Professional Networks and Mentoring: Mitigating or Exacerbating Tokenism?

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Faculty Issues 2 (Table 35)

Abstract

In this phenomenological study, we explore the role of mentorship and professional networking among BIPOC women faculty who navigated the “twin pandemics” of both COVID-19 and the racial reckoning that ensued from the murder of George Floyd. Through semi-structured interviews with six BIPOC women faculty at U.S. universities, we determined that mentorship and professional networks served to both mitigate and exacerbate token status for participants during this period. In terms of mitigation, our participants sought mentorship both for professional advice, as well as a sense of community, an experience which proved to be sustaining. Yet participants’ own mentoring activities (often to BIPOC students) were scrutinized and called into question by administrators and served as potential detractors to career advancement.

Authors

• Stephanie Sisco, University of Minnesota

• Neela Nandyal, University of Minnesota

• Angela Carter, Clemson University