Beginning a Career in Academia
A Guide for Graduate Students of Color

This practical guide prepares graduate students of color for their first job in academia and offers strategies for succeeding in the early years of a tenure-track position. Through the voices of faculty who have experienced the rigors of the job search and a career in academia, Beginning a Career in Academia offers advice for graduate students of color on how to transition from graduate school to an academic position. This inclusive volume shares perspectives that vary based on gender, racial, ethnic, generational, and disciplinary backgrounds, giving readers an opportunity to reflect on successful strategies for career readiness and for dealing with marginalization. The authors provide recommendations and tips to enhance the job search, identify campus fit, prepare for the interview and negotiation process, address dynamics of of racial and gender politics, find work-life balance, and demystify the promotion and tenure process. This must-read provides candid advice and mentorship for any graduate students of color embarking on a carreer in academe.

Foreword by Kerry Ann Rockquemore

1) Introduction

Michelle Madsen Camacho, Elwood Watson, and Dwayne A. Mack

Part I: Practical Advice for Finding Success in the Academic Job Market

2) The Pitfalls and Pleasures of the Academic Job Market

Michelle Madsen Camacho

3) Navigating Professional Conferences: Essential and Effective Job Seeking Strategies

Nadine Finigan-Carr and Natasha A. Brown

4) On the Phone, On Campus, On the Market: Demystifying the Academic Interview Process

Greg Prieto

5) When your Race and Ethnicity Shows Up in the Interview: Identifying Search Committee Expectations of Token Hires During the Interview Process

Fawn-Amber Montoya & Jared Montoya

6) Negotiating a Job Offer in Academia: ‘Lean In’ or Lay Low?

Rebecca Martinez

7) Transitioning Strategies from Graduate School to Early Career Faculty

Tom Otieno

Part II: Identity, Fit, Collegiality, and Secrets for Thriving in the Ivory Tower

8) Future Academics of Color in Dialogue: A Candid Q&A on Adjusting to the Cultural, Social and Professional Rigor of Academia

Miroslava Chávez-García, Mayra Avitia & Jorge N. Leal

9) Mentoring Junior Faculty of Color: Succeeding at Historically White Colleges and Universities

Torin Dru Alexander

10) 15 Missteps that Can Derail Faculty Early in a Career: What Graduate Students Need to Know About the Push and Pull of Academia

Elwood Watson

11) Staying Awake and Walking all Night: First Generation, Working Class, and Multiracial Latina/o Immigrants Building a Compass to Navigate Academia

Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas and Hector Y. Adames

Part III: Work-Life Balance: Strategies for Transitioning from Graduate School to the Classroom

12) LGBTQ Faculty of Color in and Out of the Classroom: Unhinging the Closet Door

Enrique Morales-Diaz

13) Transitions to Academic Life for Women of Color: Still Waiting to Exhale

Linda Alexander

14) Developing Your Teaching Craft: Observations from the Classroom

Derrick R. Brooms

15) Practical Strategies for Achieving a Work-Life Balance: Fired Up? Ready to Go!

Dwayne A. Mack

16) If at First You Don’t Succeed: Motivation for Finding the Best Institutional Fit

Sandra E. Weissinger

Dwayne A. Mack is Associate Professor of History and Carter G. Woodson Chair of African American History at Berea College.

Elwood Watson is Professor of History, African American Studies and Gender Studies at East Tennessee State University.

Michelle Madsen Camacho is Professor of Sociology and affiliated faculty with the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of San Diego.