Chapter 11 Female Faculty of Color: Agency and Structure in Race Research

Much of the research on the experiences of faculty of color makes clear the barriers such faculty face in academe. The research on women of color, while considerably less developed than that of faculty of color in general, is quite similar in pointing out the obstacles such women face in academe. Such literature does, however, seek to offer perspectives on how sexism intersects with racism to create a particularly unique context for women of color. Reporting on narratives from women of color as they relate to the research criterion in the promotion and tenure process, I seek to offer insights into how the academy traffics in race narratives, which constrains the options faculty women of color might have, but in doing so, paradoxically, open up spaces for these women to challenge social inequalities. The aim of this chapter is to move beyond the very linear notion of racism and sexism common in the literature on women of color and toward an understanding of the interplay between academic structures (i.e., the academic roles required of women of color) and individual agency (i.e., what women do with and because of these roles) in how one might account for the roles that race and gender play in academe.