“I’m The Only Diversity”: Experiences of an Immigrant Arab Woman Full-Time Faculty with Multiple Minority Statuses

• In Event: Race, Gender, and Class Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 8) Identities: Race, Class, and (Other) Inequalities

Abstract

As an Arab immigrant disabled poor asexual woman, I have been the ONLY “diversity” in each of the three Sociology programs I worked in since my graduation with a PhD in Sociology in 2020 from University of New Mexico. Each of my two previous departments received the million-dollar ADVANCE Grant to hire and retain diverse faculty. Nevertheless, I was forced out of the first program through racial bullying and terminated from the second due to alleged budgetary issues. I use autobiographical research to investigate how the ONLY ‘diversity’ navigates academic spaces that view and treat her as aberrant. I analyze my story using insights from Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and racial Formation Theory.

Author

• Marian Azab, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith