Routledge Beginning a Career in Academia: A Guide for Graduate Students of Color

This practical guide prepares graduate students of color for their first job in academia and offers strategies for succeeding in the early years of a tenure-track position. Through the voices of faculty who have experienced the rigors of the job search and a career in academia, Beginning a Career in Academia offers advice for graduate students of color on how to transition from graduate school to an academic position. This inclusive volume shares perspectives that vary based on gender, racial, ethnic, generational, and disciplinary backgrounds, giving readers an opportunity to reflect on successful strategies for career readiness and for dealing with marginalization. The authors provide recommendations and tips to enhance the job search, identify campus fit, prepare for the interview and negotiation process, address dynamics of of racial and gender politics, find work-life balance, and demystify the promotion and tenure process. This must-read provides candid advice and mentorship for any graduate students of color embarking on a carreer in academe. Review "What graduate students of color need is a clear guidebook for their journey that contains both a map of the potential minefields and a set of tools to navigate the difficult terrain. Beginning a Career in Academia is that guidebook…. The gift of this book is that the authors simultaneously describe how power plays out in academic departments at critical stages of the academic journey and provide concrete strategies to successfully navigate the space. The fact that they do so with warmth, optimism, and generosity enable a difficult conversation to take place in a pragmatic, open, and honest way." --From the Foreword by Kerry Ann Rockquemore, President and CEO, National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity "Nothing speaks more loudly and clearly than a voice that speaks from the lens of perception and experience...The narratives, experiences, and recommendations in this book will offer much fodder for analysis, synthesis, and discussion so that colleges and universities deliver on their promise to be a place that serves the needs of an increasingly diverse and global society and world." --Christine A. Stanley, Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity and Professor of Higher Education, Texas A&M University "In this book, more than a dozen professors share priceless, eyes-wide-open insights, disclosures, and warnings about how to apply and secure a faculty post and then adjust and thrive as an early-stage faculty member of color. Highly recommended for graduate students and junior faculty." --JoAnn Moody, Faculty Diversity Consultant and Author About the Author Dwayne A. Mack is Associate Professor of History and Carter G. Woodson Chair of African American History at Berea College. Elwood Watson is Professor of History, African American Studies and Gender Studies at East Tennessee State University. Michelle Madsen Camacho is Professor of Sociology and affiliated faculty with the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of San Diego.