Disparities in the Academy : Accounting for the Elephant

By: Veronica P.S. Njie-Carr, Yolanda Flores Niemann, & Phyllis W. Sharps

The experientially-based narratives in Disparities in the Academy: Accounting for the Elephant center on the importance of addressing inequities associated with sexism, racism, and their intersectionalities, which blatantly thrive in academia today. The authors’ recommended actions will facilitate the success and quality of professional and personal lives of members of historically underrepresented racial/ethnic faculty, staff, and students in academic settings, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In particular, Disparities in the Academy: Accounting for the Elephant focuses on nursing faculty and students whose racial/ethnic groups are least represented in their respective academic fields.

Disparities in the Academy: Accounting for the Elephant transcends today’s rhetoric on the need for “diversity” in colleges and universities that typically relies on increasing representation of demographic differences in the workplace. As the authors in this book bravely make clear, increasing numbers is but a first step to addressing negative educational contexts rife with implicit biases, disrespect, in-group favoritism, bullying, poor mentoring, and devaluation of intellectual contributions, minimization of intellectual capacity, tokenism, cronyism, and cultural taxation.

True inclusion is about being heard, respected, valued, and included, with equitable access and opportunity. Toward that end, meaningful inclusion necessitates structural changes in policies and processes that maintain the inequitable status quo.

Disparities in the Academy: Accounting for the Elephant is an inspirational call to make visible the disparities, while providing recommendations and best practice models that will produce social change and equity in the academic world.