Composing an Anti-Racist Academy: Re-Imagining Systems and Structures in a First-Year Writing Program

Abstract:

As white academics engaging in anti-racist education, we work from a stance of transparency, humility, and constant self-interrogation. It's important to have white instructors and administrators engaging in the labor of dismantling academic systems of oppression, if only because there are so many of us. A legacy of racist hiring and promotion strategies means that, even now, roughly 70% of faculty in the United States are white (Davis and Fry). But, as we take up the work, we need to be mindful to take our cues from instructors and administrators and scholars of color who have been in this fight long before us and continue to lead the efforts.