Overcoming Adversity in Academia

Stories from Generation X Faculty

Edited by Elwood Watson professor of history, African American studies, and gender studies, East Te

Publication date:

04 December 2013

Length of book:

272 pages

Publisher

University Press of America

Dimensions:

237x163mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780761861393

This collection of essays written by seventeen Generation X academics passionately, provocatively, and eloquently demonstrates the personal issues, conflicts, and triumphs that are definitive of this generation. These essays define the voice of an often overlooked and ignored demographic.

Preface
Elwood Watson

1. Only Human: My Experience in Higher Education
Martha Diede

2. Confessions of a Bakke Baby: Race, Academia, and the “Joshua Generation”
Terrance Tucker

3. Taking Chances: Gay, Male and Feminist in the Academy
Daniel Farr

4. Tenured To Contingent: Life Choices and the Academic Career
Annemarie Hamlin

5. The Evolution of Tolerance: Growing Up as a White Southerner in the Aftermath of Desegregation
Andria J. Woodell

6. Reflections on Navigating Invisibility and the Consequences of Being Black and Gay in the Academy
Darryl Holloman

7. Reflections Upon One Experience Leading To a Career in Academia
Douglas Mikutel

8. Living Beyond The Dream Deferred: An Auto-Ethnography of My Experiences in the Academy
Antonio C. Cuyler

9. In Search of the Abyss: Negotiating Xtra-Academic Potential
David Prescott-Steed

10. Team Mollick: Our Two-For-One Academic Journey
Kathleen and George Mollick

11. My Ongoing Journey: A Black Generation X Professor’s Story In Appalachia
Elwood Watson

12. Leaving the Popular Culture Classroom: Why I’d Rather Keep My Fandom to Myself...
Kristi Key

13. Doogie Howser, Ph.D. in Identity Crisis
Zachary Snider

14. Changing the State of Tomorrow Today: One Generation Xer’s Journey to End Racism and White Supremacy in the Academy and Beyond
Aimee Glocke

15. Hopefully Drifting
Lance Alexis

16. The Aftermath of Admission
Jenny R. Sadre-Orafai

17. Notes From An In-Betweener
Daryl A. Carter

Contributors

Index

While some contributions are stronger than others, as a whole the book achieves its purpose through the insightful and honest author self-reflections. . . .As a whole, the book presents an appropriate and necessary diversity of experiences [such as] race, gender, sexual orientation, discipline. While some chapters were stronger than others, it was a worthwhile book to read and would be a valuable addition to a post-secondary library.