A BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) faculty member tells you, the chair, that large courses and time-intensive, undervalued service are disproportionately assigned to junior BIPOC (jBIPOC) faculty, and that the resulting inequities are exacerbated by so-called “invisible” service. How can you foster respect and inclusion in your unit after learning this? 

In this episode of Advancing Faculty Excellence, Dr. Allen Liu, Professor of Mechanical Engineering explores approaches that leaders and faculty members can take to promote the equitable distribution of labor within their departments. Drawing on the Time, Routines and Structures, Opportunities, Interactions, Expectations, and Environment levers, Dr. Liu offers clear examples of how to make “invisible” work visible and how to meaningfully recognize the service labor that departments rely on.

Allen Liu is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Biophysics at the University of Michigan. Driven by a passion for understanding cellular mechanotransduction and bottom-up synthetic biology, his research integrates techniques from quantitative cell biology, synthetic biology, biophysics, and microfluidics. Dr. Liu holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry (Honors) from the University of British Columbia and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley. He completed postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla before launching his independent research group in 2012. His scientific contributions have earned him the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and recognition as a Young Innovator and Rising Star by the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Special Interest Group of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). He is an elected Fellow of BMES and has received international fellowships, including the Endeavour Executive Fellowship (Australia) and the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers (Germany).

Featured RISE Case Study: CCS #7 Distribution of Labor

Episode Resources:

Equity Minded Faculty Workloads (O’Meara et al., American Council on Education,  2021)

Faculty Time Allocation at Historically Black Universities and Its Relationship to Institutional Expectations (Escobar, et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 2021)

Undoing the Can of Worms (O’Meara, Inside Higher Ed, 2018)

The Hallway Ask (O’Meara, Inside Higher Ed, 2018)

The Burden of Invisible Work in Academia (University of Oregon Social Sciences Feminist Network Research Interest Group, Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 2017)

Eight Levers to Shift Climate for Respect and Inclusion. The Respect in Striving for Excellence (RISE) Committee. (2022, August) University of Michigan ADVANCE Program.

Find a full episode transcript on the podcast website.

Enjoyed this episode? Explore more case studies and resources at https://advance.umich.edu/rise/.

Credits: 

Hosts: Mike Liemohn, Associate Director, Advance Program & Kelsey Arras, Communications and Project Specialist, ADVANCE Program

Producer: Kelsey Arras, Communications and Project Specialist, ADVANCE Program

Music: WP Norton & So Say We All!

Production Support: Shapiro Library Design Lab