The Language and Literacy of Black Leadership in the Academy

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

Abstract

Objectives: It is essential to acknowledge that leadership in higher education is a challenging role for anyone, but it is particularly volatile for Black scholars (Dembach, 2023; Doherty, 2022; Moody, 2023; Pratt, 2024). Paper 5 examines two paths to higher education leadership, (1) moving through ranks and (2) direct appointments, and the socio-political contexts that impact Black faculty leadership. It focuses on the origin stories of a subset of participants, including how they came to be in leadership positions and how they sought and obtained guidance.

Theoretical Perspective: We used a constructivist perspective to analyze interview data, as part of a larger Black studies, community-based participatory methodology.

Data sources and Methods: The primary author conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 senior Black scholars in the language sciences who hold or have held administrative appointments. We identified themes that were prevalent in leadership literature and across the interviews and focus on particular themes and scenarios that are unique to the field of linguistics. Because there is a very small number of language scholars who have achieved leadership positions, we present data in ways that maintain the privacy and confidentiality of a vulnerable population.

Results: A review of literature and codes generated from interview data reveal the following themes: “last hired, first fired,” isolation, the glass cliff, going from “pet to threat,” leading in the Black body, financial security and vulnerability, challenges securing research funding, collaboration and community, misalignment of linguistics with the science-based financial plan, and the need to strategically plan for leadership.

Scholarly Significance: This paper seeks to remedy the gaps in this professional development leadership discourse by centering the discussion of leadership for Black people in higher education—particularly those who study language—as a topic of inquiry, growth, and reflection.

Author

• Anne Charity Hudley, Stanford University