Creating Equitable Opportunities: The Thoughts of Two Administrator Rhetoricians

Kirt H. Wilson Engineering Arts (United States) ; Kent A. Ono University of Utah

Abstract

Abstract In this article, the authors draw on their personal experiences as mid-career administrators and scholars of color to consider both the structures that limit, and opportunities for equity and social justice in, academic institutions. Although the primary logics that shape academic institutions serve to marginalize certain types of scholars and scholarship, they argue that institutions also contain gaps and contradictions where resistance is possible and from which alternative structures can be built. They identify and define three critical practices—storytelling, structural transformation, and allyship—that administrators can use to create a more equitable academy. The authors discuss why they believe it is important to invest in administrative and professional association service, where they have witnessed the gaps that make transformation possible, and how they have implemented critical administrative praxes.

Journal
Rhetoric & Public Affairs
Published
2021-03-01
DOI
10.14321/rhetpublaffa.24.1-2.0169
Open Access
Closed
Topics

Citation Context

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Cites in this index (1)

  1. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Also cites 8 works outside this index ↓
  1. 1. Paula Chakravartty et al., "#CommunicationSoWhite," Journal of Communication 68 (2018): 254-66
  2. Darrel Wanzer-Serrano, "Rhetoric's Rac(e/ist) Problems," Quarterly Journal of Speech 105 (2019): 465-76
  3. Matthew Houdek, "The Imperative of Race for Rhetorical Studies: Toward Divesting From Disciplinary and Instit…
  4. 2. For a recent, critical set of writings about administrative logics and the constraints of neoliberalism on…
  5. 3. Lisa M. Corrigan and Anjali Vats, “The Structural Whiteness of Academic Patronage,” Communication and Crit…
  6. 7. For instance, in the field of rhetoric, Anjali Vats, "Affecting White Accountability: What Mr. Rogers Can …
  7. Haneen Ghabra and Bernadette Marie Calafell, "From Failure and Allyship to Feminist Solidarities: Negotiating…
  8. 11. Lisa A. Flores, “Striving for Social Justice—The Excellence of Inclusion in Education,” Western Journal o…
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