Academia, Speak Up!
Dear Readers,
While we have come a long way in Academia, there is still a long path to an inclusive and equal-chances Academia. Stigma and discrimination exist against people for their origins, skin color, gender, sexual identity, and sexual orientation.
Last week, we opened a groundbreaking conversation about a better Academia. We call on all academics and non-academics to join the discussion on how we can make our classrooms, curriculum, and schools a more inclusive one.
The Faculty is a place where academics, educators, scientists, students, and everyone who wants to disrupt the education and scientific research system can share stories and thoughts. The Faculty is a place where we can question ourselves and our systems and enact the change we all need. A place where we share ideas and develop actions to change our approach to education, science, and research. The Faculty publication supports the rights of colleagues and students to free speech and safe debate.
I am sincerely grateful for all the writers who are joining the conversation and have shared with us their most personal stories, inviting us to lead the change and do better.
Here are their stories.
For Colored Girls in Academia Who Have Burned Out / When Rest Is Enough by Jasmine Abukar
Author’s note: This piece is unapologetically for and about Black women. It contributes to a body of work that is meant to be an in-group conversation among such women. Content warning: suicide.
On Loving Black People and Ending Silence: A Personal Response to #BlackInTheIvory by Amanda Awanjo
Last weekend, the hashtag #BlackInTheIvory (a hashtag born out of the frustrations of Joy Melody Woods and Shardé M. Davis) went viral as Black faculty and graduate students aired out the not-so-secret dirty little secret of academia. The stories within this hashtag are devastatingly familiar, the experiences of my colleagues near and far feel close enough to touch, I know them like I know my name.
George Floyd’s Curb Is My Curb Too by Jennifer Payne
On Monday morning after George Floyd was killed, I sat paralyzed at my computer, flooded by emotion. I could not move. I could not be productive, I could not “publish or perish.” I could not focus. Instead, I needed to engage in non-faculty related activity and free write. This is what emerged.
Not Just the Syllabus, Throw the Whole Discipline In the Trash by Ciarra Jones
White academia’s obsession with holding onto outdated scholarship needs to be closely examined. It is time for academia to reckon with the way in which poor scholarship is part of the social crisis at hand. Academia is responsible for proliferating anti-Blackness, xenophobia, homophobia, and so much more due to its refusal to de-canonize texts that have been proven harmful.
The Joy of Being: Notes on the Academy From a Black Woman by Charmaine Lang
The Black women and gender non-conforming activists I interviewed illuminated how we can all access joy, regardless of our tax brackets, and even in the midst of challenging injustices. Social justice activism serves as a critique to imperialist capitalism and offers rich possibilities by creating communities of care.
White Academia: Do better by Jasmine Roberts
…Yet this moment we’re witnessing across the country is not about White feelings. It is about the constant trauma, historic pain, and dehumanization that Black people experience, and frankly, have been experiencing long before the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery. If you are a White academic or higher education professional, there are some tangible actions you can take to support Black faculty, staff, and students.
An Open Call for a Proud Academia, For a more LGBTQIA+ inclusive Academia
Come and Share your Pride in Academia.
The Pride month is an opportunity to peacefully protest and raise awareness of current issues facing the community. It is a space to question and challenge privilege and inequality related not to social identity categorizations and hierarchies, but also linked to various types of oppression and unfair treatment of marginalized groups. The Faculty wants to stand up and say that we support the rights of trans and other gender-diverse people to be who they are. Join the Conversation.
More Stories from The Faculty
How I got a Congressional Internship in High School by Brandon Zhang
How Racism Provokes Cellular Ageing, Stress, and Inflammation by Shin Jie Yong
Alchemy and the Problems of Modern Science by Manuel Brenner
Sometimes I’m Reviewer 2. Here’s what you should know by Katherine A. Foss
A Statistical Study in the Use of Academic English Idioms by Mahmoud Ezdeen
How Podcasts Can Peel Back the Curtain on College Admissions by Jenna Spinelle
What To Do When Your Parents Don’t Support Your Dream Career by Sanjeev Yadav
5 Techniques to Hack your Learning Skills by Maria Angel Ferrero, Ph.D.
It’s Time to Get Real About Gifted Kids by Gail Post, Ph.D.
7 Strategies That Make Digital Learning Work by Luis Alvarado
Raising While Black: A Survivor’s Guide by G Correia
Milestones to Celebrate
One week has passed, and it’s time we celebrate achievements!
These are small wins that make us proud:
116 stories have been published in Education, Science, Research, and Academia.
more than 120 writers are now on board and are working in new stories about education, research, and life in academia.
428 followers are now reading and engaging with our stories.
369000 are the number of minutes our readers have spent in our stories.
146000 are the number of views our stories have reached.
4000 new readers visit our publication each day, on average.
98 are the number of followers on our Instagram account and Twitter account.
We believe this is just the start. The start of a great community of academics with amazing stories to tell and actively working to disrupt education. Thanks for reading us and for being part of this story. Let’s continue growing together.
Keep safe,
Your Editor, Maria Angel Ferrero, Ph.D.
