Constructing Junior Faculty of Color as Strugglers: The Implications for Tenure and Promotion

Abstract

Shortly after I became an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Arizona, my graduate advisor emailed me a speech by the President of Princeton University, Shirley M. Tilghman. The speech, “Changing the Demographics: Recruiting, Retaining, and Advancing Women Scientists in Academia,” focused on the underrepresentation of women in science and engineering. President Tilghman, a microbiologist, espoused the benefits of increasing diversity for the sciences and for the country more generally, all the while emphasizing the academy’s “moral obligation” to change:

for every girl who dreams of becoming a scientist or engineer, there is a moral obligation on our part to do everything we can to even the playing field so her chances rest on her (dare I say innate?) abilities and her determination, just as it does for her male counterparts. It is not sufficient to shrug our shoulders, invoke ail the historical reasons for the situation, call upon the leaky pipeline, or bemoan die difficulty of changing culture.²

Stephanie A. Fryberg is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and an Affiliate Faculty member in American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. Her primary research interests focus on how social representations of race, culture, and social class influence the development of self. In 2007, Dr. Fryberg was the recipient of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) Louise Kidder Early Career Award for contributions of research to society.