1204 - Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) Professional Workshop. URM Faculty’s Feelings about Marginalization, Climate, Aggression, and Resources: Results from a Mixed Methods Study

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Description

Under-represented minority (URM) faculty can expand the range of perspectives, paradigms, and experiences taught to students, but only if they are hired, granted tenure, promoted, and encouraged to move up the hierarchical academic career ladder. This process often occurs within a non-meritocratic stratification system where white male values and rules govern. Our research examines the feelings, perceptions, and experiences of sociology and economics faculty regarding racial/ethnic inequality in historically white institutions, as they move through the ranks. It also looks at the institutional factors that are related to these feelings, perceptions, and experiences. We use a sample who answered an online survey of the universe of black and Hispanic faculty who obtained their PhDs in either discipline between 1995 and 2006. Of the 254 respondents, 51 percent are women, 63 percent are black and 37 percent are Hispanic, and the modal group (46 percent) is currently in the rank of associate professor. Many in our sample examine racial stratification and inequalities in their scholarly work.

This workshop will be based on four papers from the project. The first paper gives an overview of the study and a history of URM academic scholars as they vary by race, ethnicity, and gender intersectionally. The second paper uses survey results to examine the different experiences of URM in sociology and economics. The third paper uses the results from an in-depth set of interviews with a small portion of the sample. And finally, the fourth paper develops a network analysis of sample members, in terms of co-authorship patterns with URM or white scholars.

The findings from these papers should give clues as to institutional changes that could help to lessen negative URM faculty experiences. We invite workshop participants to offer ideas about dissemination and applied policy impact.

Sub Unit

• Minority Fellowship Program

Session Organizers

• Roberta M. Spalter-Roth, American Sociological Association & George Mason University Center for Social Science Research

• Jean H. Shin, American Sociological Association

Presiders

• Roberta M. Spalter-Roth, American Sociological Association & George Mason University Center for Social Science Research

• Jean H. Shin, American Sociological Association

• Jason A. Smith, Kaiser Permanente

• Amber Kalb, George Mason University

• Crystal Peoples, Duke University