Racialized Exclusion of Faculty Couples of Color at Predominantly White Institutions

Abstract

As universities face unprecedented pressure to diversify, campus communities must reckon with the fact that nearly one-third of underrepresented and racially minoritized (URM) faculty are in an academic couple. Despite the prevalence of URM academic couples, research rarely captures their perspectives, which could shed light on their experiences with dual-career hiring and inform faculty diversification efforts by revealing barriers to their inclusion. Guided by critical race theory, this study draws upon couple and individual interviews with nine URM faculty couples, and reveals how they endure racialized devaluation of their merit and racialized sexism against women partners. Implications for recruitment and retention are discussed.