Rising to Full Professor

"To improve the position of faculty of color we have to understand the challenges and lives of faculty of color. Rising to Full Professor accomplishes a great deal. Baseline data explains the under-representation of faculty of color. The challenges faculty of color face by way of obscure tenure and promotion policies highlights the hurdles individuals face. As importantly, Rising to Full Professor puts a face on the challenges. We learn not only about composite data, but also the individual hurdles that faculty of color face.

Thoughtful. Nuanced. Interesting. A good read on an important topic."

"Bravo! This pathbreaking book edited by two Higher Education leaders offers an impressive array of brilliant academics of color recounting experience with becoming full professors in our systemically racist society. With a critical eye on how they advanced academically, they detail often herculean efforts to counter racial barriers to promotion while simultaneously providing savvy mentoring advice and recommendations for more junior colleagues of color."

Joe Feagin, Distinguished University Professor, Texas A&M University; Past-President, American Sociological Association; and senior co-author of Racist America

"Newly tenured associate professors often ask, ‘Now what? How I do I achieve promotion to full professor?’ This pathway is elusive, especially for faculty of color who remain woefully underrepresented as full professors. Rising to Full Professor is a long overdue contribution centering diverse pathways and naming challenges along the journey. This is a must-read for scholars of color aspiring to full professor and affirmation we are more than worthy of the achievement despite obstacles."

Lori Patton Davis, Chair, Department of Educational Studies, and Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs, Ohio State University

"Numbers matter. Lived experiences matter. Institutional practices matter. And when they tell the same story, as they do in this compelling analysis of the norms and practices of daily life in academe that conspire to land us with such scarcity of senior faculty of color, we need to all pay close attention. As the editors of this powerful volume conclude: ‘Isn’t it time for institutions to live up to their espoused rhetoric of diversity and inclusive excellence and rethink how we recruit, evaluate, and reward faculty work…?’ Clearly, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. The testimonials here of those who successfully travelled the wickedly biased pathway to senior status underline its urgency – this is the time for change, and there is enormous collective wisdom here for faculty of color, faculty allies, and administrators alike about how to act affirmatively to rewrite the story going forward.

As this volume so fulsomely teaches us, we too can learn how to transform our institutions and grab the opportunity for diverse excellence at hand, if we listen to the words of these teachers – these survivors who are stars – who remind us that numbers matter and lived experiences matter and the more our institutions open ourselves to embrace them as the leaders for change, the better off we all will be."

Nancy Cantor, Chancellor of Rutgers University–Newark