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Section: Opinion

‘But You’re Not a Real Doctor!’

Once while traveling to a conference, I used my credit card to check-in to use my frequent flyer benefits. My salutation, Dr. Nichole M. Garcia, prompted the sales associate to ask me if I could provide medical advice for something they were experiencing. As I began to explain that I was not a medical doctor, I was met with, “But you’re not a real doctor, you’re a teacher.”

January 17, 2019

On Being a Professor with Autism, and Traveling the World to Destigmatize It

People on the autism spectrum have similar characteristics no matter their nationality or race. However, there are great differences in societal awareness, acceptance and appreciation of people on the autism spectrum throughout the world.

January 17, 2019

Why is Black Excellence so Important?

Black excellence is more than a catchy hashtag or words written across the front of a hooded sweatshirt. Black excellence is, in fact, our ancestor’s wildest dreams. It is what we as people of African descent strive for each and every day.

January 16, 2019

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Education in Spite of It All: A Black Woman’s Journey

My mother, Dr. Mildred Pratt, died in 2012. I think about her often. She was one of the first-generation of Black women to become a full professor at a predominantly White institution. When she became a full professor in the 1970s, Black women represented 1 percent of all full professors. As of 2016, Black women, like me, represent 2 percent of all full professors. In fact, out of all the full-time faculty in degree-granting postsecondary institutions, Black women only represent 3 percent of all faculty. We need more.

January 15, 2019

Menah Pratt-clarke

African-American

‘Mascu’sectionality: Theorizing an Alternative Framework for Black Males

The theorizing and theoretical frameworks speaking to the male experience, particularly the Black male experience has tended to emanate from a place of deficit thinking and pathology. Hence, for Black males and those who study this population, engaging in critical discourse about their epistemological and ontological being is at best lopsided.

January 15, 2019

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Sorority Life as an Act of Resistance

My expectations of life as a Black, college student in the 90’s were largely shaped by a TV show called “A Different World.” The show was set on the campus of the fictional Hillman College in Virginia. For the first time I saw a group of students on television who looked like me and whose background mirrored my own.

January 14, 2019

Immigrant Identity

As a first-generation Mexican immigrant woman, who stands at just 5 feet tall, I knew navigating academe would be difficult. I immigrated to the United States when I was four years old with my parents and four siblings. Although my parents lacked formal education and had very limited English skills, they knew they had to apply to legalize our status through the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

January 11, 2019

Asian American Pacific Islander

A Lottery for Harvard and Other Elite Schools?

As we wait for the judge’s decision, one interesting essay has been published in Quartz by Natasha Warikoo, an associate professor of education at Harvard. Warikoo suggests Harvard save time, money and anxiety by running a lottery. That’s right. A lottery.

January 11, 2019

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Don’t Wait – Meditate

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America estimates that 40 million adults age 18 and older suffer from an anxiety disorder. At 18 percent of the nationwide population, medication use is at an all-time high and more people are struggling to cope than ever before. The struggle is arguably more existent in the African-American community.

January 10, 2019

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HBCU Websites Must Adhere to American with Disabilities Act Guidelines

Over the next few years schools that fail to address whether their websites and other tools are consistent with ADA guidelines will encounter additional challenges. This is important considering that HBCUs are traditionally underfunded.

January 7, 2019

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Teaching Through Trauma

Trauma nestles in the crevices of our memories. It burrows in our shoulders, lies dormant in our muscles, and creeps in via a smell, a word, or even an unrecognizable reminder of the pain of the past. For our students, those triggers can be class discussions on controversial topics like the Department of Education’s retreat from addressing sexual assault or debates about sexual misconduct during judicial confirmation hearings.

January 7, 2019

Asian American Pacific Islander

The Biggest Diversity Case in 2018 Could be the Biggest of 2019

The Harvard case, in which Asian Americans sued Harvard for discrimination, could determine access to higher education for all people of color for decades to come. It also easily defines where Asian Americans stand on diversity. And just who the good guys are, isn’t exactly clear at first.

December 28, 2018

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How Researchers of Color are Left out of the Gun Violence Conversation in Media and Academia

Although the frequency of mass shootings has increased, and the constant media coverage makes it seem that it is now a more common form of gun violence, it only makes up a sliver of gun deaths in the U.S. Homicide and suicide make up a majority of gun deaths.

December 20, 2018

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‘Please Call Me Dr.’

For the past three years I have had students who were “offended” or “insulted” because I have made it a point for them to call me Dr. Garcia.

December 20, 2018

Lack of Diversity in Study Abroad

For many students, the costs associated with studying abroad can seem insurmountable.

December 18, 2018

African-American

Solange, Black Women & Politics

Several years ago, when my political science colleagues and I were revising our curriculum, I made the argument that we needed to add to our required courses a class that focused on women and politics. Philander Smith College mission is centered on social justice, so it made sense that in our program that we would focus on communities that are often overlooked or understudied in the academy. Therefore we adopted this course along with Black politics and African politics as part of our core curriculum.

December 17, 2018

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‘The Best Dissertation is a Finished Dissertation’ Reconsidered

Throughout my time as doctoral student, there is one piece of advice that I keep hearing that is both reassuring and troubling to me — “the best dissertation is a finished dissertation.” At face value, I interpret that as advice to not overthink every decision I make about my dissertation, to let go of trying to achieve perfection, and to do my best to get it done. While I agree with all of this, I can’t help but wonder “what does that say about the way we approach our work?”

December 16, 2018

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Student Affairs Goes Digital: Translating Student Support to the World of Online Learning

With nearly a third of all students now taking at least one course online, institutions are grappling with the reality that online is neither fringe or the sole domain of nontraditional students or for-profit colleges.

December 16, 2018