The racial bias loop in academic hiring:
1.) Frame a faculty position in a way that get mostly white applicants
2.) Invite one “diverse candidate” for a campus visit
3.) Hire a white candidate who is a “better fit”
4.) Lament why your faculty is so white
5.) Rinse and repeat
1.) Frame a faculty position in a way that get mostly white applicants
2.) Invite one “diverse candidate” for a campus visit
3.) Hire a white candidate who is a “better fit”
4.) Lament why your faculty is so white
5.) Rinse and repeat
A major way to ensure that your applicant pool remains mostly white is to insist that your school needs X disciplinary perspective, which is never actually true. It is just a legacy of the old white dude club who created disciplinary boundaries in ways that protect their status.
For example, if you say “we need somebody who studies second language acquisition” you shouldn’t be surprised when your applicant pool lacks diversity since the field has historically and in many ways continues to exclude considering issues of power as legitimate areas of inquiry
If instead of framing it around second language acquisition you frame a faculty position around the study of inequality in language education I bet your applicant pool will be more diverse and more of these “diverse candidates” will be a “better fit” for the position.
Like if academia is serious about dismantling structural racism in ways that many of its institutions claim it should start by dismantling the disciplinary boundaries produced to keep POC out in new faculty positions.
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