The Professor Is In

In this episode, Karen and Kel talk about how searches are run. While Karen wrote chapter four of the book to open up the Black Box (so to speak) of the academic job search, a closer examination reveals all the ways that the “normative” search model that she describes both reinscribes and conceals the institution’s investments in whiteness at every turn. From the approval of the new line, through the ad and the search process, to the campus visit and offer, departments and search committees scaffold whiteness into every part of the process… and then wonder why the professoriate remains so white.

Karen and Kel launch the new project of revisiting our core job market advice with an eye to its gaps around racism and the experience of BIPOC scholars. We begin with the first section of the Professor Is In book, which discusses the "big lie" of graduate school. We dive into all the ways that graduate admissions and graduate training privilege whiteness and marginalize Black scholars and other scholars of color. We question what the current uprisings mean for campuses and whether meaningful change can actually happen. While as white people we cannot know what it's like to be a BIPOC scholar in the academy, to the best of our ability we will search out places where we can correct prior gaps, silences, or misinformation around issues of race and racism.

Karen and Kel launch the new project of revisiting our core job market advice with an eye to its gaps around racism and the experience of BIPOC scholars. We begin with the first section of the Professor Is In book, which discusses the “big lie” of graduate school. We dive into all the ways that graduate admissions and graduate training privilege whiteness and marginalize Black scholars and other scholars of color. We question what the current uprisings mean for campuses and whether meaningful change can actually happen. While as white people we cannot know what it’s like to be a BIPOC scholar in the academy, to the best of our ability we will search out places where we can correct prior gaps, silences, or misinformation around issues of race and racism.

Recorded prior to the #BLM moment, this episode talks about planning for Fall 2020 in the new COVID world. It's almost impossible to plan when everything feels so up in the air, and transitioning through the frantic effort of moving classes and life online, to summer, and then on to Fall prep, has been profoundly destabilzing for almost everyone. As you look ahead, know that above all, you need rest. Karen and Kel talk about how you can't stop on a dime, though--you might need to plan the resting.... scheduling time to slow down, and let your nervous system unwind. So don't feel weird about scheduling your rest, and also don't be surprised if feelings of rage and fury rise up as your frantic hyper-defense mechanisms click off.

Recorded prior to the #BLM moment, this episode talks about planning for Fall 2020 in the new COVID world. It’s almost impossible to plan when everything feels so up in the air, and transitioning through the frantic effort of moving classes and life online, to summer, and then on to Fall prep, has been profoundly destabilzing for almost everyone. As you look ahead, know that above all, you need rest. Karen and Kel talk about how you can’t stop on a dime, though–you might need to plan the resting…. scheduling time to slow down, and let your nervous system unwind. So don’t feel weird about scheduling your rest, and also don’t be surprised if feelings of rage and fury rise up as your frantic hyper-defense mechanisms click off.

Departments, universities and advisors are massively failing the current moment of national crisis around Black Lives and police brutality. Too many remain silent, or issue vague, pitiful milquetoast messages repeating tired claims of support for “diversity and inclusion.” In this episode, Kel and Karen talk about the damage this silence and gaslighting does to Black students, faculty, and staff, and how both white institutions and individuals can overcome fear of doing things wrong, try and rise to the occasion, and learn to apologize effectively and non-defensively on the inevitable occasions when we screw up. We also promote the #Strike4BlackLives called by Black scholars in Physics and Astonomy for Wednesday June 10, and the hashtag #BlackInTheIvory, created by Joy Melody Woods and Dr. Sharde Davis, that has released an explosion of voices sharing experiences anti-Black racism in the academy. White folks: we need to read, to listen, to speak up in non-intrusive ways, and #DoBetter

Karen and Kel interrupt regularly scheduled programming to amplify the Black writers, scholars, and activists they follow and learn from on a daily basis. Here is the list, with Twitter handles, in approximate order: Alishia McCullough (IG @blackandembodied) and Jessica Wilson (IG @jessicawilson.msrd); [the rest are Twitter] Brittany Williams (@DrBritWilliams); Brittany Packnett Cunningham (@msPackyetti); Ijeoma Oluo (@ijeomaoluo); Tressie McMillan Cottom (@TressieMcPhD); Roxane Gay (@rgay); Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia); Brittany Cooper (@ProfessorCrunk); Kimberle Crenshaw (@sandylocks); Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey); Clint Hill Smith III (@ClintsmithIII); Ibram X Kendi (@DrIbram);

PhDivas Podcast (@PhDivas); Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (@ibjiyongi); Zoe (@ztsamudzi); Tricia Matthew (@TriciaMatthew); Carol Anderson (@ProfCAnderson); Nyasha Junior (@NyashaJunior); Ruha Benjamin (@ruha9); Imani Perry (@imaniperry)

Karen and Kel interrupt regularly scheduled programming to amplify the Black writers, scholars, and activists they follow and learn from on a daily basis. Here is the list, with Twitter handles, in approximate order: Alishia McCullough (IG @blackandembodied) and Jessica Wilson (IG @jessicawilson.msrd); [the rest are Twitter] Brittany Williams (@DrBritWilliams); Brittany Packnett Cunningham (@msPackyetti); Ijeoma Oluo (@ijeomaoluo); Tressie McMillan Cottom (@TressieMcPhD); Roxane Gay (@rgay); Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia); Brittany Cooper (@ProfessorCrunk); Kimberle Crenshaw (@sandylocks); Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey); Clint Hill Smith III (@ClintsmithIII); Ibram X Kendi (@DrIbram);

PhDivas Podcast (@PhDivas); Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (@ibjiyongi); Zoe (@ztsamudzi); Tricia Matthew (@TriciaMatthew); Carol Anderson (@ProfCAnderson); Nyasha Junior (@NyashaJunior); Ruha Benjamin (@ruha9); Imani Perry (@imaniperry)