Diving for Pearls: Mentoring as Cultural and Activist Practice among Academics of Color

Abstract

For senior scholars of color like Geneva Smitherman and Victor Villanueva, mentoring is more than an academic exercise. From them and their proteges, we may gain some understanding of the complexities and costs of building a multiethnic/multiracial professoriate in our discipline. n a New York Times article that appeared fortuitously, on September 11 this fall, Harvard researchers Richard Chait and Cathy Trower referred to the continuing paucity of faculty of color in American higher education and the often-cited pipeline explanation, but with a twist: “The academy has long attributed the slow progress in diversifying faculty to a ‘pipeline problem’—an undersupply of women and minorities enrolled in graduate programs . . . . [But] the more stubborn problem is that the pipeline often empties into uninviting territory.” This territory, they assert, is characterized by “social isolation, subtle and occasionally overt prejudice, a lack of mentors and ambiguous expectations,” making the academy a less likely choice of career even for those who do complete doctoral programs. Their view on work environment is supported by the recent and extensive study of faculty experience by Caroline Sotello Viernes