Hi all! This email has three purposes:
(1) To thank Ed Liebow, Executive Director of the AAA, for taking the time from what I know is a very busy schedule, to provide such extensive feedback in such a short period of time;
(2) To share this information with my two undergraduate mentees, Betselot Wondimu and Tebebe Million (B & T), as I attempt to organize this information for review at our next mentee meeting on April 9;
(3) To copy ABA and WAPA membership as part of an effort to identify others who may be interested in: (a) the experiences of African Americans (AAAs) and others of color, have had in navigating the white public spaces of a number of anthropology departments; and/or (b) in becoming potential research collaborators on these issues.
Taking on this task was not initially planned as one of my retirement activities. But as I have listened to anthropologists of color comment at numerous anthropology conferences over the past 5 decades, as well as advised scores of non-white students and young faculty members regarding their difficulties trying to achieve in overwhelmingly white departments, I have decided that if I can complete this project, it could be my last contribution to the discipline.
This email started out as a thank you to Ed for the direction and resources he provided as shown in his forwarded email below. However, given my tendency to write long and detailed emails, in an effort not to make this email excessively long, I am dividing my response to Ed into two communications: (1) the current communication addressing the bulk of Ed's feedback; and (2) a second email addressing Ed's final suggestion regarding his "contemplation of asking the AAA Board to request that all members respond to questions about race, ethnicity and gender identity.
The reason for this split in my response is the items addressed in the current email are more urgent in sharing with B & T something about the extent of the research involved in this project, while the later email will focus more on, as Ed identifies and my B has suggested earlier, securing data from department's regarding such identifiers could be most challenging, and possibly impossible.
So now I begin with Ed's feedback and my responses
TONY's REQUEST 1: A list of institutions granting PhDs in Anthropology.
ED's RESPONSE: We can provide you with an Excel spreadsheet that contains all degree-granting programs at the BA/BS, MA/MS, and PhD levels. Just tell me to whom I should send it.
TONY's RESPONSE to ED: Ed please send Excel spreadsheet as email attachment to the address in which I am currently communicating. At the same time, please copy B & T (who I have copied on this correspondence).
TONY's NOTE TO B & T. B & T, it would be helpful, if you could begin converting this AAA spread ship that includes the four columns of the blank that that I sent you last week that that: (1) highlights those departments that grant PhD degrees (because awarding of PhDs are the way that we grow, through training, anthropologists who train subsequent generations of anthropologists); and (2) the final three columns (# of AA doctoral students, # of tenure track AA faculty members within the department, and the # of adjunct AA faculty members, and the location of their primary employment. Then as we move along we can further explore other data such as # of AAs graduate with the PhD, how many AAs have ever received PhDs from those departments; how many AA faculty members have ever been employed in those departments; and what were their experiences with promotion, in terms of being awarded tenure, associate, and full professorship.
I sent out an earlier email today to the ABA membership asking your assistance to share with me information from anthropology departments, as well as others, information regarding: (1) the number of AA PhD black students and faculty in your own, or any other anthropology department of which you are aware, the names and rank of black faculty (Asst, Assoc, Full, or Emeritas) and (2) black faculty in other departments outside of anthropology, the names of departments in which they hold these position, the names of those faculty members, and their rank.
TONY's REQUEST 2: Past reports of committees working on issues of diversity in Anthropology, particularly those no longer on the AAA's website
ED's RESPONSE: Tony, which AAA reports would you like?
TONY's RESPONSE to ED: Most of my book's contents of will be auto-ethnographic reflections on my lived experiences as an AA anthropologist, first as a doctoral student in one specific anthropology department (1968-1975, while taking a one year leave from 1970-71), and 20 years later beginning 30 years (1988-2017) as a faculty member (the first 5 years as chair) in a second department.
However, I want the work to be informed by the broadest literature and data contexts as possible. Hence, Ed, I am interested in all of the AAA reports that I can access to inform my writing, and thank you for directing me to links to the rich body of resources on the AAA website, including numerous reports.
But while interested in these various materials, I will give my most immediate attention the last report that I can find on the AAA site, Smedley, Audrey and Janis Hutchinson, eds. 2012 Racism in the Academy: The New Millennium.
However, if any of you that I am copying on this email know of more recent works on these issues, please let me know. I am also organizing a bibliography of related references that will further inform my work. I will upload this bibliography, along with relevant reports, and other materials related to these issues, to my Drop box account for later use and sharing with future collaborators (including B & T).
One of the reasons for this effort, is that if Smedley and Hutchinson's 2012 product is the latest discussion document regarding the issues of race and racism in anthropology departments, then I think it might be beneficial to update where we are today.
TONY's REQUEST 3, 4 & 5: Who were the members of past committees, whether such committees exist today, and what is the contact information for the leadership of current AAA Diversity Committees?
ED's RESPONSE: These are presented in some detail on Ed's email which is forwarded below. Thus, I will not repeat them here, but will refer to them in my following response to Ed's Email.
TONY's RESPONSE to ED: Ed again, I thank you for all of the links to the AAA website which might help us with our data search ("Resources", the Members Programmatic Advisory and Advocacy Committee (MPAAC), the "members only" directory, the online Guide to Departments, and the Anthropology Information Central repository. With regards to MPAAC, I also want to thank you for the contact information for Drs. Gabriela Torres and Antoinette Jackson, who currently occupy the two seats that focus on minority issues. I hope that some of the things that I am attempting to accomplish on my project will be beneficial to achieving whatever their charge may be regarding minority issues.
In fact I plan to engage Drs. Torres and/or Dr. Jackson as supporters and other collaborators, along with other interested AAA, ABA, and WAPA in the following activities which I have planned for the summer, including:
1) The establishment of a 2019 discussion group/book club in the DC area focused on the papers in the Smedley and Hutchinson 2012 collection.
2) These discussions, if successfully established, hopefully will broaden my perspectives on these issues from the input of others, and possibly recruit some collaborators/co-authors related to my own writings, and stimulate others to pursue their own related topics.
3) These discussions, if successfully established, hopefully will stimulate the development of a Writing Collaborative (a third of my retirement agenda items beyond completing monographs and mentoring), including the development of a second and related monograph that I have proposed. The monograph that I am current trying to complete focuses on what I see as a diversity problem in many anthropology departments including: (a) the diversity of perspectives that would come from greater non-white participation in this discipline of diversity; (b) what could be learned from the experiences of non-whites attempting to navigate white public anthropology spaces, as well as preliminary data on the psycho-cultural impact of the absence of Blackness. The second proposed monograph, which I have tentatively titled Enhancing the Presence of Blackness in Anthropology: Recommendations and Best/Better Practices, focuses on addressing the problem investigated in the first monograph.
4) I hope to use these summer discussion groups to stimulate the initiation of this second monograph (See attached abstract) which I hope to submit for next November's AAA meeting.
5) I would also like to invite members from Best/Better Practices departments to contact me ASAP about joining me for this propose AAA roundtable discussion.
TONY's REQUEST 6: Does B & T have to be AAA members to help Tony search the AAA website for information related to these issues.
ED's RESPONSE: Includes the following:
o To search the "members only" directory, one has to be a member
o To get detailed information from the online Guide to Departments, one has to be a memberOtherwise, all other information is available regardless of membership status. You might be especially
o Otherwise, all other information is available regardless of membership status. You might be especially interested in reports contained in the Anthropology Information Central repository.
TONY's NOTE TO B & T. B & T, although you have not made up your minds yet whether you want to go on to graduate school in anthropology or public health (Betselot), or architecture (Tebebe) for the remainder of your time with me, I think it would be beneficial to you, and possibly to me, to have you apply for AAA student membership. For you, I think having access to the AA's online Guide to Departments might help you in your decision as to whether go anthropology for graduate school. It would be beneficial to me because while I am an AAA member, and could access both this guide, and members only directory, having you start this process could be helpful to you. Thus while the assistance that you have given me has been voluntary (non-paid), please apply for AA student membership, and then when we meet next Tuesday, bring me your receipt for membership, and I will reimburse you.
And finally, B & T, I have reiterated in this email, the AA links that Ed sent me, because given the working table mentioned above, I hope you have enough of an idea of where I am going with this book, and thus you will be able to explore these links to help me identify those data that may provide relevant information regarding the proposed book's content. Then at our bi-weekly meetings, we can discuss what you have been able to find.
(Also, if any of you who live in the DC area would like to drop in on my bi-weekly meetings with B & T, please communicate your interest, and I will respond with the dates and times).
Take care everyone, and enjoy this great spring weather. Tlw
______________________________________________________________________
Tony and colleagues, let me answer these questions in the order that you posed them:
- a list of institutions granting PhDs in Anthropology:
o we can provide you with an Excel spreadsheet that contains all degree-granting programs at the BA/BS, MA/MS, and PhD levels. Just tell me to whom I should send it.
- past reports of committees working on issues of diversity in Anthropology, particularly those no longer on their website
o which reports would you like? There was a 1973 Report of the Committee on Minorities and Anthropology: The Minority Experience in Anthropology; a 2010 Report of the Commission on Race and Racism in Anthropology (Co-chaired by Janis Hutchinson and Thomas Patterson), and the 2012 report from the Task Force on Race and Racism, whose report can be found here. As you will see, there are a bunch of other relevant materials under the "Resources" menu.
- who were members of past committees
o If you look at the committee reports under the "Resources" menu, you will see who served on the committees
- whether such committees exist today
o The Committee on Minority Issues in Anthropology was folded into the Members Programmatic Advisory and Advocacy Committee (MPAAC) in 2018, along with the former committees on Ethics, Labor Relations, Gender Equity, World Anthropologies, Public Policy, Practicing-Applied-Public-Interest-Anthropology, and Human Rights. Each of these programmatic areas retains two seats on the MPAAC; the two seats focused on minority issues are currently occupied by Gabriela Torres and Antoinette Jackson.
- contact information for the leadership of current diversity committees
o Contact information is available for Drs Torres and Jackson at the link I just provided, but in case this is easier:
§ torres_mgabriela@wheatonma.edu
§ atjackson@usf.edu
- whether T&B have to be AAA members to help Tony search the AAA website for information related to these issues
o To search the "members only" directory, one has to be a member
o To get detailed information from the online Guide to Departments, one has to be a member
o Otherwise, all other information is available regardless of membership status. You might be especially interested in reports contained in the Anthropology Information Central repository.
o Please join!!
Incidentally, I am contemplating asking the AAA Board to request that all members respond to questions about race/ethnicity and gender identity, as long as one possible response is "prefer not to answer." Right now, providing this information is not required, and we have absolutely no accurate idea about our membership. We recognize the problematic nature of category labels, but unless we have some better, more comprehensive sense of our membership, we will never be able to say with any confidence that actions and investments we make to become a more inclusive and equitable association are having any effect. I would be keenly interested to know your reaction to this possibility.
Let me know if this is helpful, and also how else I can help. Ed
Edward Liebow, Executive Director American Anthropological Association +571.483.1168 – direct line +206.618.3697 – mobile ELiebow@AmericanAnthro.org | |
From: Tony Whitehead [mailto:tonywhitehead1122@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2019 2:38 PM
To: Takami S. Delisle <takamishiratori@gmail.com>; aba_listserv@binhost.com; Ed Liebow <eliebow@americananthro.org>
Subject: Fwd: Question - Assessing African American Presence in PhD Granting Anthropology Departments
Hello all. Two days ago, I copied you on an email sent to my two undergraduate mentees, with an assignment that could be of help in the completion of two monographs building on the theme of Anthropology as White Public Space, put forward by Brodkin, Morgen and Hutchinson, (American Anthropologist 113:4, December 2011), and the suggestion by Brodkin that "Anthropology: Its Still White Space," a 2014 interview published in the blog, Savage Minds, from her work as co-chair of the AAA Task Force on Race and Racism.
Within a day, those students got back to me with some very helpful questions as we try to move forward. I am now forwarding you my response to their questions. This response is long because I often use these emails as educational tools for those who have approached me about mentoring. So, for those of you who may not read long emails, please simply direct your attention to the three items listed in the middle of this forwarded email, where I repeat requests for feedback from Ed Liebow, interested ABA membership, and Takami Delisle.
Whereas I know that all of you are busy, and I don't want to rush you on your feedback. But I will be mentoring these students until the end of the term (beginning of may), and the sooner I receive feedback from you, the sooner I can direct them to assist me in taking advantage of that feedback.
Also, young ABA members, please give attention to my offer to extend my mentoring program to the extent that your interests tend to overlap strongly with my own, which I take to be the case with Takami. I hope to do this by offering you opportunities to co-author chapters, or co-author entire monographs, this one and others. Thus please contact me if you want additional information. If we come to some mutual agreement, then I will invite you access my Dropbox folders that I mention to my two current mentees.
Thank you for your attention and assistance. And take care! TLW.
3/28/19
Great work B & T. And you are right in that: (1) all departments will not have images of students in the program to help one guestimate whether these students are Black/African American; and (2) your statement that it feels difficult to attribute a racial category to some individuals without a photo of them, and sometimes remains difficult even when a picture is present; and (3) racial classifications are mostly accurate when they come from the person him/herself and not when it is assumed/imposed from an external source.
I am truly impressed that you immediately began to explore this issue, and your analytical capacity related to the difficulties that you list. However, in response to your statement, "we are afraid that we may collect inaccurate information in our assessment of the black/African-American presence in PhD anthropology programs," this exercise is not to come to any conclusion about racial categorization, but to simply begin the ethnographic process of accessing multiple streams of information, that could lead to certain inferences, before valid interpretations are made.
If nothing else, whatever pictures are present on websites, which will be mostly of faculty, it can lead you to an early inference of most anthropology departments as white public spaces, an interpretation that has been posited by a few other anthropologists, such as Brodkin, Hutchinson, and Morgan. (I will share the source of these citations with you later).
And finally B, you asked: "I was wondering if you had a protocol in mind on how to go about collecting this data (i.e. if emailing or otherwise contacting these doctoral programs to ask for self-reported racial statistics would be a wise decision)?" If you go to the Dropbox folder, Is Anthropology Just for White People that Bets uploaded on Tuesday, and click on Proposal Sections, and then Research Methodology, you will find a 5 page single spaced draft list of methods that I have proposed pursuing for completing this book. (This ambitious list will be finalized after I pursue as many of the methods as I can, and this final draft will be included as a methodological chapter in the book).
In speaking of methodology, this might be the time to direct your attention to the research questions guiding the research for this monograph, by again going to the Dropbox Is Anthropology Just for White People folder, and clicking on Research Questions Guiding the Proposed Project,
I will need help in carrying out the various methodologies mentioned above, and why it is so important that you asked the question regarding protocol. You have provided me direction as to what the objective of our next meeting will be. But beyond just the two of you, I will need help from elsewhere. And that is why I copied others on the email that I sent you before our meeting on Tuesday, such as:
1. Ed Liebow, Executive Director of the AAA, to ask: (a) who might be a AAA staff member who might assist me with where to find: (a) a list of institutions granting PhDs in Anthropology; and (b) past reports of committees working on issues of diversity in Anthropology, particularly those no longer on their website, as well as who were members of past committees, and whether such committees exist today, and if there are, who are the contact information on the leadership of current diversity committees; and whether (3) you, T & B, have to be members of the AAA in order to help me search the AAA website for information related to these issues.
2. The ABA membership in case there are ABA members interested in this project, or who want to share their experiences with regards to the issues being explored in this project, or who may want to be co-authors of chapters of the book, or co-editors of the book.
3. Takami Delisle, a doctoral candidate at the University of Kentucky, who wrote me several weeks ago telling me: "My project focuses on graduate training experiences of minoritized anthropologists, who do not self-identify white, across different generations in the US. It also examines what strategies these anthropologists in various historical and institutional contexts craft(ed) for coping with and challenging inequities in different social and institutional power relationships."
With regards to the last two items, ABA membership and Takami Delisle, are part of my effort to use my own experiences in the hopes of helping younger scholars, in particular young black scholars, further their progress in their own careers as anthropologists, while not getting too far away from my own ambitious retirement agenda. Thus this effort is part of my overall retirement mentoring agenda, which now includes the sessions that I have organized in meeting with you T &B, every other Tuesday for the remainder of the term. In terms of ABA membership and Delisle, I am offering them the opportunity to collaborate as chapter co-authors and monograph co-editors on this, and other related monographs that I hope to write. (This mentoring objective grew out of a long career that often times non-white faculty job and graduate school admission applicants are disadvantaged because of not having a publication record, which in the book I suggest that this is often times related to professional mentoring with an objective of co-authoring with mentors.
To further this process, I will forward this email to these parties as a gentle reminder of whatever help they might provide me would be greatly welcomed. As I stated before, I am using these long emails as another teaching or mentoring opportunity. So, I am elongating the current email by returning to the attributes of ethnography mentioned earlier in response to your question regarding research protocols. Another such attribute is that the challenges (such as a failure to find specific data ), lessons learned, and achievements of the research process can often be as valuable as the research product or outcomes (final interpretations and findings). Thus, completing the monograph, tentatively titled Is Anthropology Just for White People, these issues, establishing the whiteness, or absence of blackness in other departments, while important, will only provide supportive evidence for the book's primary content which will mostly be auto-ethnographical---my lived experiences as a black graduate student, faculty member, and department chair. Thus rather than viewing this exploratory work of assessing departments as possible white public spaces, please fill in whatever data that you were able to find in the table that I provided, and upload to Dropbox so that I can keep up with what you are doing, and begin to make my inferences or preliminary interpretations.
While some question such ego focused approaches, they not only can help with producing possible answers or inferences that often go overlook because answers cannot be found in other sources, or may never even be posed by such sources, even when experienced by multiple persons. I also view auto-ethnographic approaches as a way to pass on to younger scholars, lessons learned and solutions employed in pass challenges. Citations in the book will also include those from published works, as well as comments from other diverse anthropologists over my career.
Well Bets, I hope this will help you and T with your questions, and again I thank you for them. Please let me know if you have others. Thanks Again. tlw.
Hi Dr. Whitehead,
I hope all is well. Tebebe and I have begun the process of gathering a list of universities that offer doctoral programs in anthropology, and are beginning to take counts of black and African-American students and faculty in these programs. All of the universities we have looked at that offer doctoral programs have had a list of students in the program and faculty in the department. However, not all lists are complete with images of all students and faculty.
We have a quick question/concern about how to proceed in this process. It feels difficult to attribute a racial category to some individuals without a photo of them, and sometimes remains difficult even when a picture is present. Racial classifications are mostly accurate when they come from the person him/herself and not when it is assumed/imposed from an external source. Given this, we are afraid that we may collect inaccurate information in our assessment of the black/African-American presence in PhD anthropology programs.
With this, I was wondering if you had a protocol in mind on how to go about collecting this data (i.e. if emailing or otherwise contacting these doctoral programs to ask for self-reported racial statistics would be a wise decision)? Let us know what you think about this!
--
Tony L. Whitehead, PhD, MS.Hyg,
Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland
10807 Dayflower, Ct., Reston, Va 20191
703-620-0515 (Home)
--
Tony L. Whitehead, PhD, MS.Hyg,
Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland
10807 Dayflower, Ct., Reston, Va 20191
703-620-0515 (Home)
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--
Tony L. Whitehead, PhD, MS.Hyg,
Professor Emeritus,
University of Maryland10807 Dayflower, Ct., Reston, Va 20191
703-620-0515 (Home)
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