Designing Your Life: A Wellness Model For Black Faculty in the Language Sciences

• In Event: Talking Faculty: The Linguistic and Professional Choices of Black Faculty in U.S. Higher Education

Abstract

Objectives: Paper #3 delves into the choices and experiences of Black language scholars once they transition into faculty positions, exploring how we can design for ourselves lives in the academy that are supportive of all facets of our wellbeing. In this paper, I propose a model of wellness for Black faculty in the language sciences based on Swarbrick’s (1997, 2006, 2012) Dimensions of Wellness and on insights from interviews with Black scholars. The paper also supports non-Black readers in designing a sustainable approach to allyship/co-conspiratorship.

Theoretical Perspective: I take a holistic view of wellness, approaching it as an ongoing, creative process that takes into account all eight of Swarbrick’s (1997, 2006, 2012) Dimensions of Wellness, starting with the Spiritual Dimension and ending with the Occupational. I then combine the Dimensions with interview insights to propose a wellness model designed with Black language scholars in mind.

Method & Data Sources: The primary data source for this paper were semi-structured interviews with nineteen Black faculty in the language sciences (including myself) from across the career arc from postdoc to full professor. Most worked at public, predominantly white institutions (PWIs) that are research-focused and PhD-granting. The interviewees were distributed across many types of departments and programs, and in most cases, those with appointments in linguistics held a joint appointment in another unit. Fifteen identified as female (the remaining four as male), and the group was sprinkled across all regions of the US. Interview questions addressed many topics, such as interviewees’ decision to become faculty members; their support networks; the practical choices they’d made as part of daily living; the productivity strategies they’d used; and when/how they engaged in their various language practices. These conversations yielded approximately twenty-six hours of data. After checking that the interviewees were comfortable with their contributions, I conducted a thematic analysis of the transcripts using Atlas.ti qualitative data analysis software. Swarbrick’s model served as a helpful guide as I sifted through the data for recurring themes, and I assigned each theme to one of the eight Dimensions.

Results: By supplementing the eight Dimensions of Wellness with the three Rs of Alignment (an iterative process of Reflection, Reconnection, and Reevaluation based on insights from the interviews), I propose a hybrid model of wellness that we as Black faculty can use to (re)design lives in the academy that are sustainable and aligned with our “center”. Each section of the paper is dedicated to a Dimension of Wellness, providing readers with a snapshot of how Black linguists thrive in that domain, while also clarifying some of the challenges we face.

Scholarly Significance: This paper is a critical addition to the limited literature on Black faculty experiences in the language sciences. It outlines a holistic model of wellness, providing insights into the many ways that Black language scholars define wellness for ourselves and offering tools and recommendations to support readers in the life design process.

Author

• Joy Peltier, The Ohio State University