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1. Structural Impediments Impacting Early-Career Women of Color STEM Faculty Careers

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14060581  

   Woods, Johnny C; Lane, Tonisha B; Huggins, Natali; Leggett_Watson, Allyson; Jan, Faika Tahir; Johnson_Austin, Saundra; Thomas, Sylvia (June 2024, Education Sciences)

   Woods, Johnny C; Lane, Tonisha B; Huggins, Natali; Leggett_Watson, Allyson; Jan, Faika Tahir; Johnson_Austin, Saundra; Thomas, Sylvia (Ed.)

   Women of Color faculty continue to experience many challenges in their careers, especially in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. As such, more research is needed that considers structural issues inhibiting their success. Using structuration theory and critical race feminism as a conceptual framework, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 faculty and administrators in STEM departments at higher education institutions to investigate their perceptions of structural impediments impacting early-career Women of Color STEM faculty careers. Our findings revealed the need to establish policies that are clear, documented, and transparent. Additionally, incremental approaches to tenure and promotion evaluations should be reconsidered, especially when this approach may position Women of Color faculty to appear as if they are underperforming, when the opposite may be true. Furthermore, as higher education institutions endeavor to diversify the professoriate, this study is significant in enabling institutions and STEM departments to be aware of systemic issues confronting them to make significant inroads in retaining and advancing Women of Color faculty in these disciplines. 

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2. Epistemic exclusion: A theory for understanding racism in faculty research evaluations.

   https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001313  

   Settles, Isis H; Jones, Martinque K; Buchanan, NiCole T; Dotson, Kristie; Grower, Petal; O'Rourke, Michael; Rinkus, Marisa; Latimer, Kyjeila (May 2024, American Psychologist)

   Despite institutional efforts, growth in the number of faculty of color has largely plateaued, limiting research innovation and other benefits of diversity. In this article, we seek to understand structural barriers to faculty equity by (a) detailing a theory of epistemic exclusion within academia and (b) applying the theory of epistemic exclusion to the specific context of faculty departmental reviews of scholarly research (e.g., annual review, promotion and tenure review). Epistemic exclusion is a form of scholarly devaluation that is rooted in disciplinary biases about the qualities of rigorous research and identity-based biases about the competence of marginalized group members. These biases work in tandem to systemically and disproportionately exclude marginalized scholars (e.g., people of color, women) from the academy. In the context of faculty departmental reviews, epistemic exclusion can happen in formal systems of evaluation through criteria, metric, and application exclusion. It can also occur informally during interpersonal interactions and communications through legitimacy, contribution, and comprehension exclusion. In this article, we detail each of these types of exclusion, how they may interact with each other, and their consequences. We assert that epistemic exclusion threatens the diversification of academia and offer suggestions for equitable evaluation practices and reducing epistemic exclusion within higher education broadly. 

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3. “I don’t believe that I have been wanted”: Processes of Overinclusion and Exclusion in Racialized and Gendered Organizations

   https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spae043  

   Misra, Joya; Kane-Lee, Ember Skye; Mickey, Ethel; Smith-Doerr, Laurel (July 2024, Social Problems)

   Many studies document that faculty of color, and particularly women of color, find the academy unwelcoming. Yet research that centers intersectional understanding of the mechanisms leading to these inequalities is underdeveloped. We identify three context-dependent mechanisms of racial and gender disadvantage among faculty: active exclusion, overinclusion, and passive exclusion. Taking an explicitly intersectional approach that builds on relational inequality theory, our study focuses on 32 faculty of color, including 18 women and 14 men, comparing their experiences to 30 same-rank white departmental colleagues. Comparing the experiences of faculty who share the same rank and department but differ by race and gender provides a deeper understanding of how race and gender inequalities intersect and are shaped by organizational processes. Active exclusion involves the devaluation of BIPOC faculty’s research, as well the barring of access to resources and positions. Overinclusion is characterized by the overreliance of the university on the labor of faculty of color, particularly women of color, without appropriate compensation. Finally, we conceptualize a more passive kind of exclusion, where BIPOC faculty are left out of collaborations, mentoring, and decision-making relative to white colleagues. Moving beyond rhetoric to disrupting racism in the academy requires addressing overinclusion, and both active and passive forms of exclusion. 

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4. Exposing postdocs to multiple institutional types: a PROMISE-ing intervention to prepare biomedical faculty

   https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1477538  

   Cresiski, Robin H; Ugarte, Fadel; Harris, LaKeisha; Clark, Jessica K (October 2024, Frontiers in Education)

   Bankston, Adriana (Ed.)

   Biomedical faculty positions require experience as a postdoctoral scholar (or “postdoc”). However, there is a current misalignment with postdoctoral training and workforce needs within higher education. The majority of postdocs are trained to be research faculty while completing fellowships at research-intensive universities, despite the fact that the majority of US higher educational institutions (where these postdocs may be employed) focus on undergraduate education. This leads to postdoctoral scholars not having the opportunity to gain exposure to different institutional types where they could be employed. Importantly, they also lack the opportunity to build a network or receive mentorship from faculty at non-R1 institutions. This may be particularly true of underrepresented scholars. In this brief report, we describe the practice of the NSF-funded PROMISE Academy Alliance to bridge this training gap and support greater preparation for faculty careers at an array of institutional types by leveraging collaboration within a state university system. A survey of PROMISE Academy Fellows about their structured experiences engaging with other campuses (e.g., campus tours, workshops, speaking opportunities) reveals that visits to other campuses within the state system are informative and impactful, both on their research and their employment interests. The positive findings can hopefully inspire easy-to-implement changes in postdoctoral support across other university systems or regional consortia. 

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5. Diversifying the STEM Professoriate: Defining the issue at hand

   York, Travis T.; Griffin, Kimberly A. (February 2017, CAHSI’s INCLUDES Conference)

   This paper identifies the primary issues that have confounded efforts to increase the number and proportion of underrepresented groups within STEM faculty. Drawing on extant research, the paper establishes that despite increases in diversity and inclusion within other areas of academia, STEM fields continue to experience disproportional lags in diverse representation throughout the STEM pathway and especially within STEM academic careers. The paper argues that there are two primary foci that must both be addressed to achieve a diverse workforce: increases to the pool of credentialed candidates and a critical examination of the recruitment, hiring, and retention practices and policies. While this paper is focused within the context of higher education and the diversification of STEM faculty, its findings and argument are applicable for areas of industry beyond academic careers. 

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