What to Expect and How to Respond: Distress and Success in Academia

What to Expect and How to Respond offers a solutions oriented glimpse into life in academia from the vantage point of groups including students, faculty and administrators. This interdisciplinary anthology provides insight into the profession for graduate students planning on becoming academics; brings to the attention of junior faculty potential tenure and promotion pitfalls as well as strategies to successfully overcome potential obstacles; offers senior faculty strategies to improve collegiality and the workplace environment; and provides administrators with tools to proactively and effectively contend with sensitive managerial matters. This interdisciplinary anthology is useful for undergraduate and graduate students of any discipline designed to prepare them for a career in academia whether as staff, faculty or an administrator. Moreover, this volume is a fine resource for those already in academia who may be experiencing any one or number of specific challenges highlighted from which useful survival strategies could be garnered.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments Part One: Navigating the Academic Pipeline Chapter 1: Cuentos and Testimonios: Professional Socialization into Academia Alma L. Zaragoza-Petty Chapter 2: Hanging by a Thread: International Students Reaching for the American Dream Cristina S. Stephens and Elena Gheorghiu Chapter 3: Gritty Tales of Tenure Track Job Seekers in Higher Education Thomas Hochschild Part Two: Now That You Have the Job Chapter 4: Paperwork, Meetings, and Program Review: The Challenges of University Teaching in the 21st Century Deborah L. Smith and Brian J. Smith Chapter 5: Honeymooning Alone: On the Challenges of Dual–Career Long–Distance Academic Couples Breanne Fahs Chapter 6: Who Publishes in Leading Sociology Journals (1965-2010)? Robert Perrucci, Mangala Subramaniam and Carolyn C. Perrucci Part Three: Challenges in Academia Chapter 7: The Tyranny of the Majority: A Case Study of Intellectual Exclusion in Sociology Joseph Michalski Chapter 8: Two Professors and Their Stories from a Tiny College Hamon Ha-am and Malintzin Chapter 9: Down the Rabbit Hole: Racism and Microaggressions at a Public New England University Shanette M. Harris and Donald Cunnigen Part Four: Survival Techniques in Academia Chapter 10: We are all Huskies: Constructing a Collective Memory after the Tragedy at Northern Illinois University Bobbi A. Knapp Chapter 11: Horror Stories from the Hallowed Halls of Academia: How Six Women Lived to Tell the Tale Claire H. Procopio, Helen Tate, Kristina Horn Sheeler, Krista Hoffmann-Longtin, Sarah Feldner, and Karrin Vasby Anderson Chapter 12: Turning Nightmares to Victories: Handling Promotion and Tenure Horrors Lin Huff-Corzine and Melvin Rogers About the Editors About the Contributors Index

About the Author :
Earl Wright II is Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Cincinnati and the author of groundbreaking works on the contributions of W. E. B. Du Bois and the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory to American sociology. He is also the past president of the Association of Black Sociologists and Mid-South Sociological Association. Thomas C. Calhoun is Associate Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs and Professor of Sociology at Jackson State University and he has published extensively in the area of deviance. He is the recipient of the Aida Tomeh Outstanding Teaching Award and J. Milton Yinger Distinguished Career Award from the North Central Sociological Association; the A. Wade Smith Outstanding Teaching Award and the James E. Blackwell Distinguished Career Award from the Association of Black Sociologists; and is past president of the Association of Black Sociologists, Mid-South Sociological Association and North Central Sociological Association.

Review :
The collection of essays assembled in What to Expect and How to Respond offers clear insight into the world of higher education as experienced from the vantage point of minority faculty and administrators, at various stages of their careers. Each compelling narrative emphasizes overcoming challenges and obstacles in “tense” and oftentimes “traumatic” environments. This unique text provides readers with a lens to deconstruct events and ways to build resilience within institutions in which they could otherwise feel defenseless. What to Expect and How to Respond addresses race and cultural democracy in the American academy from the perspectives of a select racially and culturally diverse group of women and men. The horrors and distress described are painful to read. More importantly, however, while perceived horrors and distress exist, insight is provided to those who seek ways to be victorious rather than victims. What to Expect and How to Respond should be required reading for graduate students in professional seminars. Entering the job of university professor can seem, to the outsider, to be a laid back position with lots of free time and wonderful colleagues. Those of us who have had careers as professors quickly learned that much of this is not true. Finally this academic reality has been put between two covers. Read each chapter; learn the lessons given; enter the ivory tower; and become successful!