‘Strange faces’ in the academy: experiences of racialized and Indigenous faculty in Canadian universities

ABSTRACT

This paper is based on a larger qualitative study of exclusion and belonging as experienced by members of marginalized groups in the professions. The current analysis draws on a subsample of 13 racialized and Indigenous academics at Canadian universities to examine their experiences of both everyday racism – subtle, almost intangible micro-level interactions that convey messages of not fully belonging – and overt racism and colonialism. Overt experiences were less common, though intensely painful. Though in some ways they are more straightforward to address, as they are more obvious, they also consume considerable time and energy. Instances of everyday racism and colonialism were more common, often intricately interwoven with the very fabric of the institutional culture. Their cumulative nature is exhausting. Diversity initiatives, while popular in contemporary universities, are failing to approach equity, in that they deny the need for change in institutional cultures.

KEYWORDS:

• Racism
• colonialism
• academia
• microaggressions
• faculty
• higher education

Acknowledgments

We want to thank participants as well as the rest of the research team: Kim Brooks, Merlinda Weinberg, Bea Waterfield, and Brenda Hattie.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [435-2014-0234].