Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T18:52:00.705Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 8 - Preserving the Mental Health of Black and Brown Professors in Academia

from Part II - Promoting Mental Wellness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2022

By
Anica Camela Mulzac
Edited by
Antija M. Allen  and
Justin T. Stewart
Antija M. Allen
Affiliation:
Pellissippi State Community College, Teachers College Columbia University
Justin T. Stewart
Affiliation:
Allen Ivy Prep Consulting
Get access

Summary

For many Black and Brown professors their herculean efforts to excel in academia, despite the limitations imposed by chronic interpersonal and institutional racism, can result in their humanity being overlooked. The unrelenting exigencies of teaching, researching, publishing, administrating, and mentoring all the while cultivating vibrant personal lives can amass enormous strain on their health and wellbeing. The price of being one of few professors of color in predominantly White spaces can be arduous, as conditions of isolation, exclusion, and cultural taxation further compound the psychological stress experienced. The immense value educators of color bring to institutions has been well documented, and thus attention must be given to addressing their unique experiences if their presence in the field is to be maintained, and eventually expanded. In this chapter, the author will explore the various mental health challenges faced by professionals of color in academia and propose effective strategies for addressing them.

Keywords

academiaprofessorBlackBrownmental healthstressracismpromotion and tenurecultural taxation
Type
Chapter
Information
We're Not OK
Black Faculty Experiences and Higher Education Strategies
 , pp. 128 - 144
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alves, P. C., Oliveira, A. D. F. & Paro, H. B. M. D. S. (2019). Quality of life and burnout among faculty members: How much does the field of knowledge matter? PLos ONE, 14(3), e0214217. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214217CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, G. (2020). The emotional toll of racism. Inside Higher Ed. October 23. https://bit.ly/3dWR6QqGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, V. (2019). Stigma regarding mental illness among people of color. National Council for Mental Wellbeing. July 8. https://bit.ly/3oWBH8QGoogle Scholar
Arnold, N. W., Crawford, E. R. & Khalifa, M. (2016) Psychological heuristics and faculty of color: Racial battle fatigue and tenure/promotion. The Journal of Higher Education, 87(6), 890–919. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2016.11780891Google Scholar
Baumgartner, J. C., Aboulafia, G. N. & McIntosh, A. (2020). The ACA at 10: How has it impacted mental health care? The Commonwealth Fund. April 3. https://doi.org/10.26099/2ajx-qg59CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binkley, C. & Fenn, L. (2019). Colleges struggle with soaring student demand for counseling. Associated Press. November 19. https://apnews.com/article/25905a5c3d28454ba0d84dcb958fe32cGoogle Scholar
Brey, C. D., Musu, L., McFarland, J., Wilkinson-Flicker, S., Diliberti, M., Zhang, A., Branstetter, C. & Wang, X. (2019). Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups 2018. Washington, DC: US Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2019038Google Scholar
Burden, J. W., Harrison, L. & Hodge, S. R. (2005). Perceptions of African American faculty in kinesiology-based programs at predominantly white American institutions of higher education. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 78(2), 224–37.Google Scholar
Dancy II, T. E. & Brown, M. C. (2011). The mentoring and induction of educators of color: Addressing the impostor syndrome in academe. Journal of School Leadership, 21(4), 607–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/105268461102100405CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flaherty, C. (2017). Aftermath of a professor’s suicide. Inside Higher Ed. April 21. https://bit.ly/3dUpziAGoogle Scholar
Flaherty, C. (2020a). Botched. Inside Higher Ed. June 22. https://bit.ly/3EZDUGlGoogle Scholar
Flaherty, C. (2020b). UVA reverses tenure denial. Inside Higher Ed. July 27. https://bit.ly/3q3TrPbGoogle Scholar
Flaherty, C. (2020c). Burning out. Inside Higher Ed. September 14. https://bit.ly/3s5o9KlGoogle Scholar
French, B. H., Adair, Z. R., Cokley, K., Lindsey, T. B., Morales, A., Morales, E., Neville, H. A., Wang, K. & Worthington, R. L. (2015). As people of color formerly employed by Mizzou, we demand change. HuffPost. November 17. https://bit.ly/3q2PRo6Google Scholar
Gasman, M. (2016). The five things no one will tell you about why colleges don’t hire more faculty of color. The Hechinger Report. September 20. https://bit.ly/3DLM7gvGoogle Scholar
Grollman, E. A. (2015). Invisible labor. Inside Higher Ed. December 15. https://bit.ly/3m9YkotGoogle Scholar
Jimenez, M. F., Laverty, T. M., Bombaci, S. P., Wilkins, K., Bennett, D. E. & Pejchar, L. (2019). Underrepresented faculty play a disproportionate role in advancing diversity and inclusion. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3, 1030–3. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0911-5Google Scholar
Johnson, G. (2020). Police killings and black mental health. Penn Today. June 23. https://bit.ly/3yu8qFKGoogle Scholar
Kezar, A. (2020). Undoing years of affirmative action: The growth of non-tenure-track faculty. In Taylor, M., Turk, J. M., Chessman, H. M. & Espinosa, L. L. (eds.) Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education: 2020 supplement. Washington, DC: American Council on Education. https://bit.ly/3dWc3L6Google Scholar
Lashuel, H. A. (2020). Mental health in academia: What about faculty? eLife, 9. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54551Google Scholar
Lu, J. (2021). Why pandemics give birth to hate: From bubonic plague to COVID-19. NPR. March 26. https://n.pr/3oVIEamGoogle Scholar
McClean Harvard Medical School Affiliate. (2021). How can we break mental health barriers in communities of color? https://bit.ly/33rxaTvGoogle Scholar
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2020). The Condition of Education 2020. Washington DC: US Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2020144Google Scholar
Nguyen, T. (2020). Faculty open up about mental health under the COVID-19 pandemic. C&EN: Chemical and Engineering News, 98(19). https://bit.ly/3yugS7MGoogle Scholar
Powell, A. (2019). Trust, belonging, keys to mental health of students of color. Harvard Gazette. September 19. https://bit.ly/3dSKZwbGoogle Scholar
Rothfelds Lab. (2020, June 4). The Rothfels lab stands against racism everywhere. Rothfels Lab. https://bit.ly/3s6ZDsfGoogle Scholar
Settles, I. H., Buchanan, N. T. & Dotson, K. (2019). Scrutinized but not recognized: (In)visibility and hypervisibility experiences of faculty of color. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 113, 62–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.06.003Google Scholar
Sotto-Santiago, S., Tuitt, F. & Saelua, N. (2019). All faculty matter: The continued search for culturally relevant practices in faculty development. The Journal of Faculty Development, 33(3), 83–93.Google Scholar
Souza, A. P. D. S., Silva, M. R. M., Silva, A. B. J. D., Lira, P. C. D., Silva, J. M. L. D., Silva, M. L. D., Carmo, T. S. D., Leite, S. C. P., Silva, R K. P., Silva, K. G. D., Filho, P. T., A., Fernandes, M. S. D. S., Barros, W. M. A. & Souza, V. D. O. N. (2020). Anxiety symptoms in university professors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Science Journal, 14(7), 773. doi: 10.36648/1791-809X.14.7.773Google Scholar
Stanley, C. A. (2006). Coloring the academic landscape: Faculty of color breaking the silence in predominantly white colleges and universities. American Educational Research Journal, 43(4), 701–36. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312043004701Google Scholar
Sue, D. W., Alsaidi, S., Awad, M. N., Glaeser, E., Calle, C. C. & Mendez, N. (2019). Disarming racial microaggressions: Microintervention strategies for targets, white allies, and bystanders. American Psychologist, 74(1), 128–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000296Google Scholar
Thorsen, E. J. (1996). Stress in academe: What bothers professors? Higher Education, 31(4), 471–89. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00137127Google Scholar
Turner, C. S. V., González, J. C. & Wood, J. L. (2008). Faculty of color in academe: What 20 years of literature tells us. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 1(3), 139–68. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012837CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uttl, B., White, C. A. & Gonzalez, D. W. (2017) Meta-analysis of faculty’s teaching effectiveness: Student evaluation of teaching ratings and student learning are not related. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 54, 22–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2016.08.007Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×