CALL FOR PAPERS
Stories from the Front of the Room:
How Higher Education Faculty of Color Overcome Challenges and Thrive in the Academy
Editors: Orly Clerge, Frederick W. Gooding Jr, Michelle A. Harris, & Sherrill L. Sellers
Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield
This past year, national news circuits have highlighted the countless challenges that faculty of color face in asserting belonging in the academy and their freedom of speech. Movements such as #ilooklikeaprofessor highlight these persistent social problems in academic settings. Stories from the Front of the Room is an attempt to compile a diverse array of narratives about how faculty of color navigate marginality in their everyday experiences on campus. Our intent is to present a more complete picture of life in the academy - one that documents how faculty of color are tested, but also how they can overcome and thrive in their respective educational institutions. We are interested in authors who are willing to paint a picture of an event or a series of events in a non-traditional format—a letter. Letters should be addressed to a person or a body of persons with whom the author would like to share their experience. We are seeking letters addressing invisibility, discrimination or exclusion in relation to race, ethnicity, class, citizenship status, class, sexuality and or gender.
If authors wish to remain anonymous, the editors will create pseudonyms and edit personally identifying information.
To whom may letters be written?
- · Colleagues (fellow faculty)
- · College/university administrators, including Deans, Department Chairs, etc.
- · Students
- · Spouses/partners/significant others
Themes that may be addresses in a letter:
- · Encounters in which you are not treated with dignity and respect from colleagues, students, staff and/or administrators or from individuals you may supervise (Teaching or graduate assistants, for example)
- · Joint-appointments
- · Tenure and promotion
- · The stressors inherent in the role of mentoring, advising, and supporting students
- · Institutional discrimination within higher education
- · Balancing family and academic life
Deadline:
Please send a one-paragraph letter of interest to frontoftheroom2015@gmail.com by September 4th, 2015.
The letter of interest should include: Your rank, discipline, if you want to be anonymous and a couple of sentences that describe the event/experience you will address in your letter chapter.
Final letters are due October 15th to the editors.
Letter Page Limit:
3-5 double-spaced pages (1,000-1,500 words)
Example Letter Format:
They call me Dr. Berry (New York Times, Nov. 1, 2014):
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/opinion/sunday/they-call-me-doctor-berry.html?_r=0
Manuscript guidelines:
These will be provided once a potential author sends a letter of interest to the editors. The letter should express interest in contributing to the volume, provide a very brief outline of experience(s) that will be addressed in the letter, and if the author wishes to identify themselves in the letter or if they wish to write anonymously.
