Breaking Out of the Ivory Tower: (Re)Thinking Inclusion of Women and Scholars of Color in the Academy

ABSTRACT

In this #MeToo moment, many women of color have called out those in power, namely men, who engage in sexual harassment and toxic masculinity. Furthermore, scholars, whose personal identities and research interests lie at the margins of gender, race, class, and sexuality, have drawn increasing attention to issues of gendered and racialized biases and harassment in the Academy. During our pre-conference session at the 2018 meeting of the American Political Science Association, we discussed substantive methods for reckoning with these conditions. We worked through the theoretical frameworks of Black Feminist and queer scholarship to orient ourselves toward actions that center the most marginalized. We identified methods for generating transformative solutions to campus and departmental problems facing students, faculty, and staff with intersectional identities. In all, the workshop proved both effective and generative for all in attendance, providing those present with concrete tools to build more equitable departments and classrooms.

KEYWORDS:

• #MeToo
• higher education
• race
• gender
• Black feminism
• intersectionality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The Combahee River Collective discussed how “major systems of oppression are interlocking” in their mandate, entitled “A Black Feminist Statement,” originally written in April 1977 (Moraga and Anzaldúa 1981, 210–18).

2. I will refer to this as the Black Queer Feminist Lens, the BQF, and the BQFL throughout this essay.

3. See: https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Ugly-Truth-of-Being-a/243234