Section A01
In her piece "Fight the Tower", Prof. Caroline Valverde of the Asian American Studies department at UC Davis discusses her struggles with navigating the academe in her long, strenuous tenure application, tenure denial, and tenure appeal process as a professor of multifaceted identities: low income Vietnamese American, refugee, woman, and scholar. Throughout this process, she was faced with discrimination, hostility, inequality, and injustices from not only the institutions she was with, but also amidst her career advancements as a woman of color professor within the academia pipeline, in which she calls the "tower." These struggles ultimately impacted her mental and physical health, and put her life in danger. Valverde asserts to fellow women of color professors and readers that her struggles in navigating through this system was greater than the self, as sociological and historical conditions of racial, class, ability, and gender have shaped them. Ultimately, women of color in the academia must mobilize together to fight for justice and their rights. These professors'/scholars work are not to be defined by an increasingly privatized pipeline that's reflective of sociological injustices, but will rather be by their own power of self definition.
Historical and social conditions, like the devaluing of Asian women's worth/contributions to society, interracial/interethnic bias (systemic racism), class bias (classism), and the stigmatization of mental health, have led her to develop the "imposter syndrome," a condition one feels when they feel like they are not worthy of their positions despite scholarly work and stellar service. Many women of color like Valverde, through the constant demand to continuous prove their worth (supplemented by the historical devaluing of their worth/work), have no choice but to overexert and jeopardize their mental health, physical health, and identities in the process. Thus, in addition to bringing awareness, mobilizing together, and holding these academic institutions accountable, telling stories and and self caring is a crucial aspect of the action for systemic change.
Question: How can this healing show up academia settings?
References
Valverde, K. (2013). "Fight The Tower: A Call to Action For Women Of Color In Academia".Seattle Journal for Social Justice, 12(2), 367-418.
L. (2013, May 14). On Audre Lorde's Legacy and the "Self" of Self-Care, Part 2 of 3. Retrieved April 05, 2017, from http://www.lowendtheory.org/post/50428216600/on-audre-lordes-legacy-and-the-self-of
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