Created with a singular purpose: To increase the number of junior business faculty of color receiving tenure
Business schools have been called to lead and invest in efforts to build a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable community. The role of the business school professor has become increasingly important in this work. Students cite the diversity of their faculty as an important indicator of the inclusive climate of their schools, and the promotion and advancement of faculty of color has received increasing attention in recent years.
We all have work to do in this area. Faculty of color are most likely to be Assistant Professors, and the number of faculty of color decreases sharply with each step in the promotion ladder. In addition, faculty of color are least likely to report that their university is supporting diversity and inclusion. By increasing the chances that Assistant Professors of color go up for and receive tenure, we help to diversify our student populations, further academic research by scholars of color, and further support companies’ goals.
Tenure Project objectives
Building from the successful model developed by The PhD Project, we will convene an annual conference designed to achieve several interrelated goals:
Building community to connect junior faculty of color to each other, to senior faculty who can serve as mentors and sponsors, and to external community members who can help accelerate their research.
Supporting research by Assistant Professors of color by providing access or connection to resources (e.g., data, funding, connections), time and space for faculty to develop research and programming designed to hone and refine research skills.
Creating intentional spaces to discuss the issues that are specific to junior faculty of color such as self care, the emotional labor associated with potential tokenism, increased demands on time, responding to microaggressions, and more.
Our inaugural Tenure Project conference will be held at the UW Foster School of Business in Summer 2022 (tentative dates: August 2-4). The following Tenure Project conference will be held at the Wharton School in Summer 2023.
The Tenure Project was founded and created by Esther Uduehi, Assistant Professor in Marketing and International Business at the Foster School of Business and Wendy de la Rosa, Assistant Professor in Marketing at the Wharton School.