Improving Hiring, Retention, and Promotion of BIPOC Faculty
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18060/28037Keywords:
BIPOC, racism, Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, racial/ethnic disparities, tenure and promotionAbstract
Social workers are responsible for dismantling systems of oppression, promoting equity and inclusion, and creating and implementing just systems. Yet the structural inequities that disadvantage historically marginalized populations, including BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) populations, continue to be embedded into the very thread of social work practice, education, and research. Using critical race theory, we discuss how race and racism lead to the undervaluing of BIPOC scholarship and how BIPOC scholars with intersecting identities are doubly undervalued. We provide empirical evidence and case examples illustrating undervalued BIPOC scholarship and how it continues to oppress and disempower BIPOC scholars within academia, focused on the hiring, retention, and promotion of BIPOC faculty. We end with recommendations for addressing these areas of oppression, such as convening a multi-university effort to re-think promotion criteria for scholars engaged in diversity, equity, and disparity work. Such an effort could have implications for promoting social work scholars, many of whom are BIPOC. We hope this paper initiates a timely and essential discussions, leading to new, anti-racist practices of hiring and retaining BIPOC faculty and evaluating BIPOC scholarship and related teaching and service.
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