Rising to Full Professor: Pathways for Faculty of Color

Academe has made little progress in hiring and advancing faculty of color.

Through the narratives of full professors of color, this book aims to make visible their journeys -- beset with lack of criteria transparency, marginalization, discouragement, and discrimination on the way to success -- to provide insights for junior and mid-level scholars as they negotiate their pathways to full professorship.

This book offers readers a unique, micro-and macroscopic window into the lived experiences of individuals who represent a multitude of social, ethnic and cultural identities, disciplinary domains, academic and professional credentials, and socialization experiences. They share their doubts and fears as they began their applications, the contradictory advice they received, who they consulted for guidance, some of the indelible costs of the experience and, when they encountered it, how they dealt with initial rejection.

In describing their persistence and success, the contributors reflect on the rewards of the position and the opportunities it offers to play influential decision-making roles and become agents of change, shifting institutional culture, values, and practices.

Beyond filling a gap in the literature and research on, and promotion to, this position, this book uniquely addresses the experiences of women and men faculty of color, raising broad implications for how higher education recruits, evaluates, and rewards faculty work, as well as the broader context of racial and social institutional goals and outcomes.

This book is intended for several audiences. First, for faculty of color who aspire to the rank of full professor. Second, for faculty in general, including allies who work tirelessly for social justice, to dismantle white supremacy, racism, sexism, and the range of discriminatory practices Third, for administrators in senior leadership positions to make them aware of the inequitable path to full professorship and the gross underrepresentation of faculty of color at that rank whose experiences and expertise are now more than ever needed as student demographics are changing.