Belonging While Black: Black Male Perspectives on Belonging in the Professoriate
Session Overview:
While higher education in America has been a historically white-dominated space, recent years have shown PWIs working to promote issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion and retain students and faculty from underrepresented backgrounds. However, there is limited research on how minority faculty experience PWIs and the factors that help or hinder them in feeling a sense of belonging in their work. This qualitative study examines the lived experiences of fifteen African American male faculty at PWIs, and in doing so seeks to increase awareness of what belonging means to these men, the ways in which they do or don’t experience it, and what can be done to make higher education a more welcoming, inclusive, and equitable space for African American men, as well as all underrepresented minorities at large.
Learning Objectives:
1. Understand some of the lived experiences of African American Male faculty at PWIs related to sense of belonging
2. Understand what factors promote or act as barriers to sense of belonging for African American male faculty
3. Understand what can be done in the mental health professions and elsewhere to help foster sense of belonging among African American male faculty, as well as minority faculty at large
