National Model for Institutional Mentoring

Nationally, faculty of color (FOC), and particularly underrepresented faculty, indicate experiences of biases and hostility, poor or nonexistent mentoring support, undue burdens on their time, inhospitable institution-wide climates, epistemic exclusion, as well as social and intellectual isolation (i.e., Espino & Zambrana, 2019; Gonzales, 2018; Settles, Buchanan, & Dotson, 2018; Turner, Gonzalez, & Wood, 2008; Whittaker & Montgomery, 2014). Of these experiences, supportive climate and mentoring are interconnected core deficiencies in university life that have the most reverberating effects on FOC.  

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I am an optimist, even in challenging times.  As members of MSU and other broader communities, in the wake of national and global events, the DRN community inspires and brings hope. It is your scholarship and synergistic efforts that shift community trajectories, improve families and children, and indeed have global impact. Within the DRN, our role is to support you, enhance your connections and opportunities, and make more visible the exceptional work being conducted by our members.

As we welcome President Stanley to MSU, we also invite him to celebrate, support and draw upon the deep well of DRN scholarly talent. We have made additional strides this year: our writing retreat reached more than 60 faculty participants in three years; a new Ford Foundation Training opportunity in collaboration with key faculty leaders;  book and award announcement sections in our weekly notices; and doubling Launch Awards Program (LAP) grants to MSU scholars, thanks to partnership with the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation Assistant Vice President Douglas Gage. Rising efforts this year will include an evaluation effort that will underscore your experiences with DRN programming and support, a bit of fundraising, bringing together researchers and scholars in additionally innovative ways, and strengthening our connections internally and externally.

A number of requests to speak with on-campus job candidates highlighted our value as a recruitment tool. We invite units to consider us when engaging in recruitment or hiring where they deem appropriate. We hope we can be an asset.  

Our issue is gleaming with scholarly work, successes, and support for getting the work done.  We again look forward to engaging with you through our various programs and structures. Please find our DRN webpages noted in this issue on the Office for Inclusion’s newly updated website, and make use of our twitter hashtag, #MSUDRN (2700 tweets, 2018-19), for enhancing your work, connections, and community. Finally, we wish you every success this year. Your work is special and needed!

Sincerely,
Deborah J. Johnson, PhD
Director, Diversity Research Network, 
Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives

Expanding your Reach:
Employing Social Media and Digital Platforms

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other digital platforms can be an enjoyable way to pass time or perhaps to procrastinate. Sound familiar? But what about using social media to actively engage scholarly spaces or professional development? What about using digital platforms to improve diversity and inclusivity?  In a recently published article, MSU’s Assistant Provost for Faculty Development, researcher and professor Beronda Montgomery, has developed a set of prescriptives for just these purposes, providing some needed practices and guidelines. 

In her article, Montgomery (2018) highlights the potential of social media and digital platforms to connect and support scholars and to improve diversity, inclusivity, and ultimately equity, in higher education. Social media and digital platforms can provide benefits like building community (including those focused on communal advocacy), cultivating mentoring and support, and promoting self-definition and agency. Social media platforms can counteract isolation and promote success. Outcomes such as these are especially critical for underrepresented and minoritized groups who often do not have a robust local community with which to engage. Notably, the use of identity or discipline-specific profiles, groups, and hashtags can help facilitate community building by connecting individuals with shared interests and “space” to address a range of topics (e.g., feedback, resources, professional development, and advocacy efforts). Similarly, these platforms can provide access to information sharing, mentoring, coaching, and support via online activities such as chats, blogs, and member matching. Self-definition, community agency, and community validation are beneficial outcomes that may arise from the use of social media and digital platforms. 

However, in order to yield the benefits of social media and digital platforms scholars must first be engaged. Examples of scholarly approaches for social media engagement include: 1) identifying and engaging with an audience, 2) sharing and promoting recent publications (e.g., journal articles, books, and book chapters), 3) soliciting and providing broad or specific feedback with others, and 4) promoting scholarly activities like writing, conference participation, and collaborations. For instance, a scholar might, a) identify #MSUDRN (twitter hashtag for the Diversity Research Network) as an audience to engage with, b) share a recently published book or article to be included in the #MSUDRN newsletter or DRN notices, c) provide feedback to a colleague regarding theoretical conceptualization of a manuscript, d) identify a writing accountability partner or e) develop plans to meet at an upcoming conference.

As Montgomery concludes, the power of social media and digital platforms hold significant promise for bridging gaps related to underrepresentation and for promoting connectivity in diverse functioning networks. With that said, we eagerly look forward to seeing your next scholarly tweet, a post about your newly published article or reading your feature in our DRN focal point! 

Source: Montgomery, B. L. (2018). Building and Sustaining Diverse Functioning Networks Using Social Media and Digital Platforms to Improve Diversity and Inclusivity. Frontiers in Digital Humanities, 5, 22. DOI 10.3389/fdigh.2018.00022 https://doi.org/10.3389/fdigh.2018.00022
 

The Intergenerational Storytelling Project Bridges Disciplines 

The Intergenerational Storytelling Project is a truly matchless instance of interdisciplinary collaboration by some of the best minds that Michigan State has to offer. Faculty leaders on this project include Dr. Tamara Butler (CALS/AAAS), Dr. Asia Dowtin (Education, AAAS), and Dr. Estrella Torrez (CALS, RCAH). Highlighting how the stories of women of color are important while bridging science and humanities is the complex objective of their project. Dr. Dowtin says that the project is “a way to reinforce that we are leaders,” and to help others “reimagine our contributions to the space that perhaps would not have been recognized prior to this project.” Utilizing their various roles and disciplines at MSU, these three scholars conceived a collaborative effort not only to help the local MSU community, but the broader Lansing community as well. 

This project will utilize storytelling techniques to identify and explore historic, current, and predicted patterns in the relationship of women of color to natural land in urban areas. Subsequent phases of the project (i.e., work with K-12 students) will include qualitative assessment of emergent key themes from the narratives we gleaned via storytelling.   “Students of color have an elaborate collection of knowledges and practices embedded in themselves,” says Dr. Butler, “my hope is that students can see that although their family members may not have gone to college, they intrinsically have these stories from their experiences and we want to emphasize how that knowledge can be a powerful tool in a college atmosphere.”

Through the journey, these new colleagues have learned from each other in ways they hadn’t anticipated. “It’s really easy to get into your academic box and feel trapped, but these women have shown me a way that I can go forth and collaborate further with other diverse faculty members,” says Dr. Dowtin. 

Each professor has evolved professionally and personally. “I’ve never been one to ask for help but I am becoming increasingly willing to reach out to my colleagues,” says Dr. Dowtin. Dr. Butler says, “You learn how to let other people handle tasks that they are better suited for …” when talking about how this collaboration has helped her. “I’m happy to be able to [ask for help] in a safer space with these two women. I’m able to think about what’s larger, on a bigger scale, and the longevity of projects, and that’s such an important lesson that I’ve learned,” says Dr. Torrez, “It’s about trust.”

Congratulations to Recipients of 2nd Annual 
DRN Launch Awards Program 2018-2019  
 

This year marked the 2nd annual 2018-2019 DRN Launch Awards Program (DRN-LAP)—a competitive awards program that was initiated in fall 2017. This program provides support for faculty of color and diversity scholars. The DRN-LAP aims to assist scholars in developing a strong granting trajectory by providing small awards, typically under $5,000.  We were pleased to double our awards this cycle through our collaboration with the Office for Research and Innovation and our work with Assistant Vice President Douglas Gage.

The 2018 - 2019 DRN-LAP attracted a strong pool of 21 highly qualified and diverse applicants from variety of disciplines and represented a range of faculty from early to mid and late-career.  Proposals were reviewed thoroughly by experts across MSU’s colleges and departments. This year we funded 11 scholars with innovative projects in six colleges, including the College of Natural Science, College of Social Science, College of Education, College of Arts and Letters, College of Medicine and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Projects include an inspiring documentary centered on surviving personal and national losses in the era of populist regime in Venezuela, examining the plight of prejudice toward postwar Japanese Americans, repurposing MIO-aminomutase chemicals, and examining alcohol policy intervention in Uganda, as well as examining career trajectories and identity among African American women. Each project features diverse or diversity scholars or possesses some component of culture or diversity in focus, process, place or application. Each proposal demonstrated exceptional rigor,  innovation, and potential for external fundability. Expect to learn more from these recipients as they share outcomes in future DRN venues, including “Share Outs.” 

The aim of the DRN-LAP grant awards is to ultimately assist scholars in building a portfolio leading to external funding success.

Submissions for 2019-2020 awards have now opened and will close mid-September.
Learn more about LAP and Register.

It is our greatest pleasure to acknowledge the newest deserving awardees and their projects:

Nwando Achebe
College of Social Sciences, History
Project: Viewing the Masquerade Dance from Varying Perspectives: A Visual and Audial Repository of the Nigerian-Biafran War

Safoi Babana-Hampton
College of Arts and Letters, Romance and Classical Studies
Project: Mapping Legacies of Trauma and of the Unfinished Work of Memory of French Slavery

April Baker-Bell
College of Arts and Letters, Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures 
Project: Early Career Black Women in Academia: From the Academic Strong Black Woman & Mammy to Self-Preservation

Yomaira Figueroa
College of Arts and Letters, English/African American and African Studies
Tamara Butler
College of Arts and Letters, English/African American and African Studies
Delia Fernandez
College of Social Science, History/CLS Estrella Torrez, RCAH Arts & Humanities
Project: Proyecto Palabras Puerto Rico

Alexandra Hidalgo
College of Arts and Letters, Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
Project: The Weeping Season

Dongbin Kim
College of Education, Educational Administration
Project: Immigrant professors at Michigan State University: Experiencing conflicts between immigrant and cosmopolitan scholar identities and the implications for their engagements in civic service and leadership.

Sidney Xu Lu
College of Social Science, History
Project: Japanese Exclusion in the United States and Japanese Trans-Pacific expansion, 1897-1964

Michael Olabisi
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Agricultural Food and Resource Economics
Project: Trade and Employment Shocks Maribel Santiago, College of Education, Teacher Education
Project: A National Comparative Study on Teaching Latinx Social Studies Topics

Maribel Santiago
College of Education, Teacher Education
Project: A National Comparative Study on Teaching Latinx Social Studies Topics

Mieka Smart
College of Human Medicine, Public Health
Project: Monitoring the impact of the pending “sachet ban” alcohol policy intervention in Uganda

Kevin Walker
College of Natural Sciences, Chemistry
Edith Onyeozili
Chemistry (Florida A & M Univ., Tallahassee, FL)
Walker Group at Michigan State University
Project: Repurposing MIO-Aminomutase Chemistry to Make Bioactive Arylserine Stereoisomers

MSU Office for Inclusions’ Diversity Research Network:
National Model for Institutional Mentoring 

“Mentoring has been widely recognized as one of the key factors contributing to skills development, psychosocial or socioemotional support, and career advancement and success.”
- Montgomery, 2017, SAGE Open
 

Nationally, faculty of color (FOC), and particularly underrepresented faculty, indicate experiences of biases and hostility, poor or nonexistent mentoring support, undue burdens on their time, inhospitable institution-wide climates, epistemic exclusion, as well as social and intellectual isolation (i.e., Espino & Zambrana, 2019; Gonzales, 2018; Settles, Buchanan, & Dotson, 2018; Turner, Gonzalez, & Wood, 2008; Whittaker & Montgomery, 2014). Of these experiences, supportive climate and mentoring are interconnected core deficiencies in university life that have the most reverberating effects on FOC.

These national findings were mirrored in the MSU Faculty Inclusion and Excellence Study (Office for Inclusion, 2013) at http://bit.ly/MSU-FIES, where we learned about the mentoring needs and challenges present in the campus experiences of FOC.

• 23% of FOC reported feeling unsupported in their departments
• 31% reported feeling like their scholarly activities were not valued
• Many experienced poor mentoring fit
• Lack of same ethnic group mentors led to feelings of isolation Mentoring was described as beneficial when same background, language, or discipline

However, same race matches sometimes caused disciplinary mismatches. The rise in mentoring programs and policies at North American Universities has emerged on the heels of research that underscores the importance of mentoring. Most institutions engage in some form of one-on-one mentoring practices for faculty, particularly women and FOC. Here at MSU a more central approach was conceived, given the challenges of successfully mentoring faculty within smaller units and the unique needs of FOC. Through the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives’ efforts and planning, with chief diversity officer Paulette Granberry Russell charting the path, the DRN was implemented in 2016. Since its inception, the DRN has been conceived as comprehensive support and facilitative mechanism for FOC and diversity scholars alike with a unique approach to institutional mentoring. Recently, DRN Director Dr. Deborah J. Johnson and Dr. Beronda Montgomery, AAN liaison and MSU Foundation Professor, introduced the model at the National Association of Chief Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) conference in spring 2019.

Early Successes

While some of DRN is aspirational, we have achieved a full complement of programs and supports such as writing retreats and spaces, small grants in our efforts to address climate, visibility, as well as scholarly and networking needs of member-faculty. We provide multiple writing retreats and spaces that faculty characterize as supportive, holistic, growth-oriented, and transformative experiences. More than 55 faculty of color and diversity scholars have taken part in these retreats. Writing spaces provide an opportunity for writing in community and meeting folk across campus. More than 17 departments and 10 colleges were represented among individuals using the spaces in the past two years. Small grants are also a part of the portfolio of support offered; 17 grants have been distributed in two years. In the reporting process, DRN scholars indicated that the grants were indeed pathways to more substantial funding, exemplary programs benefitting underrepresented community-based populations, and the needed bridge to make other grant applications viable.

Another important marker of how quickly the DRN has been integrated into the University is that visits with the DRN director are increasingly integrated into the schedule of job candidates across multiple departments, particularly for potential FOC as recruitment strategy. Candidates who’ve intentionally previewed campus structures and websites comment that in their review of campuses they visit, MSU possesses the most comprehensive entity targeted to support FOC, thanks in part to the DRN.

Strides have been made, but complacency is not part of the DRN philosophy. We are striving to continuously build out structures and supports for minoritized scholars and others. New opportunities for faculty, research staff and postdoctoral fellows are ever rising, and there is much left to accomplish.

Institutional Mentoring

We define institutional mentoring as a comprehensive approach to cross-university, interdisciplinary experiences focused in areas that address community, networking, and scholarly facilitation, and which are generated at the level of the institution, demonstrating commitment, investment, and accountability. Institutional mentoring, when executed well, can help improve climate, reduce isolation and support research productivity. These outcomes are important for individual faculty members and for institutional recruitment and retention.

Noteworthy Publications

Desiree Baolian Qin, Human Development and Family Studies
Louie, A. & Qin, D. B. (2018). “Car Talk:” Automobility and Chinese international students in Michigan. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 1-19.

Kelly Brittain, Nursing
Brittain, K., Kamp, K. J. P., & Salaysay, Z. (2018). Colorectal cancer awareness for women via Facebook: A pilot study. Gastroenterology Nursing, 41(1), 14-18.

NiCole T. Buchanan, Psychology
Buchanan, N. T., Settles, I. H., Wu, I. H. C., & Hayashino, D. S. (2018). Sexual harassment, racial harassment and well-being among Asian American women: An intersectional approach. Women & Therapy, 1-20.

Jennifer Cobbina, Criminal Justice 
Kerrison, E. M., Cobbina, J., & Bender, K. (2018). “Your pants won’t save you” why Black youth challenge race-based police surveillance and the demands of Black respectability politics. Race and Justice, 8(1), 7-26.

Oselin, S. & Cobbina, J.E. (2017). Holding their own: Female sex workers’ perceptions of safety strategies. In Hail-Jares, K., Shdaimah, C. S., & Leon, C. S. (Eds.). (2017). Challenging Perspectives on Street-based Sex Work. Temple University Press.

Sheila M. Conteras, English
Contreras, S. M. Chicana, Chicano, Chican@, Chicanx. In Vargas, D. R., La Fountain-Stokes, L., & Mirabal, N. R. (Eds.). (2017). Keywords for Latina/o Studies. NYU Press. 32-35.

Jon Eguia, Economics
Eguia, J. X. (2017). Discrimination and assimilation at school. Journal of Public Economics, 156, 48-58.

Steven Gold, Sociology 
Gold, S. J. (2018). Israeli Infotech migrants in Silicon Valley. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 4(1), 130-148.

Gold, S. (2018). Review of Mara A. Leichtman, Shi’i cosmopolitanisms in Africa: Lebanese migration and religious conversion in Senegal. Contemporary Islam, 12(1), 93-95.

Alexandra Hidalgo, Writing Rhetoric and American Cultures 
Hidalgo, A. (2017). Cámara Retórica: A feminist filmmaking methodology for rhetoric and composition. Logan: Computers and composition digital P/Utah state UP. 

Hidalgo, A., and Grimes, K. (Spring 2018) A feminist approach to social media. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, Issue 22.2.

John H. McClendon III, Philosophy 
McClendon III, J. H. (2016). Notes on Consciencism. Disentangling Consciencism: Essays on Kwame Nkrumah’s Philosophy, 157.

McClendon III. J. H. & Ferguson II, S. C. On the dialectical evolution of Malcolm X’s anti-Capitalist critique: Interrogating his political philosophy of Black Nationalism. In Byrd, D., & Miri, S. J. (2016). Malcolm X: From Political Eschatology to Religious Revolutionary. Brill.

Robin Miller, Psychology    
Miller, R. L., Boyer, C. B., Chiaramonte, D., Lindeman, P., Chutuape, K., Cooper-Walker, B., ... & Fortenberry, J. D. (2017). Evaluating testing strategies for identifying youths with HIV infection and linking youths to biomedical and other prevention services. JAMA Pediatrics, 171(6), 532-537.

Miller, R. L., Reed, S. J., Chiaramonte, D., Strzyzykowski, T., Spring, H., Acevedo‐Polakovich, I. D., ... & Ellen, J. M. (2017). Structural and community change outcomes of the connect‐to protect coalitions: Trials and triumphs securing adolescent access to HIV prevention, testing, and medical care. American Journal of Community Psychology, 60(1-2), 199-214.

Donna Rich Kaplowitz, College of Education | Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives 
Kaplowitz, D. R., Lee, J. A., & Seyka, S. L. (2018). Looking to near peers to guide student discussions about race. Phi Delta Kappan, 99(5), 51-55.

Anna Santiago, School of Social Work Santiago, A.M., Galster, G.C., & Smith, R. 2017. Evaluating the impacts of an enhanced Family Self-Sufficiency Program. Housing Policy Debate,

Santiago, A.M., Lee, E.L., Lucero, J.L., & Wiersma, R.A. 2017. How living in the ‘hood affects child and adolescent risky behaviors. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 3(2), 170-209.

Ignacio D. Acevedo-Polakovich, Psychology 
Acevedo-Polakovich, I. D., Kassab, V. A., Boress, K. S. J., Clements, K. V., Stout, S., Alfaro, M., Brookins-Fisher, J., & Guerra-Morales, A. (2017). When context matters: Adaptation for high-risk U.S. Latina/o subgroups. Journal of Latina/o Psychology, 5(4), 306-322.

Acevedo-Polakovich, I.D., Spring, H.E., Stacy, S.T., Nordquist, E.A., Normand, M.M. (2017). Engaging Latino fathers into Early Head Start: A review of the literature. Children and Youth Services Review, 82, 347-353.

Elizabeth LaPensée, Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures | American Indian and Indigenous Studies
LaPensée, E. (2018). Self-determined Indigenous games. In J. Sayers (Ed.) The Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities, 128-137. Abingdon: Routledge.

LaPensée, E. A. (2017). Transformations and remembrances in the digital game, “We Sing for Healing.” Transmotion, 3(1), 89-108.

Patricia Marin, Department of Educational Administration
Marin, P., & Pereschica, P. (2018). Becoming an Hispanic-Serving Research Institution: Involving graduate students in organizational change. Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, 11(3), 154-177. 

Anna Pegler-Gordon, James Madison College
Pegler-Gordon, A. (2017). “New York has a concentration camp of its own:” Japanese confinement on Ellis Island during World War II. Journal of Asian American Studies, 20(3), 373-404.

Malea Powell, Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures | American Indian and Indigenous StudiesInterviewed for “Story, Survivance, and Constellation as Praxis,” Zine 2017: Writing Networks for Social Justice, 4C4E publication, 2017.

Riyad A. Shahjahan, Higher, Adult, & Lifelong Education
Pitcher, E. & Shahjahan, R.A. (2017) From pipeline to lemonade: Re-conceptualizing college access. Educational Studies, 53(3), 216-232.

Shahjahan, R.A., Blanco-Ramirez, G, & Andreotti, V. (2017) Attempting to imagine the unimaginable: A decolonial reading of global university rankings (GURs). Comparative Education Review, 61(S1), S51-S73.

Sitara Thobani, Residential College in the Arts and Humanities 
Thobani, S. (2017). Indian Classical Dance and the Making of Postcolonial National Identities: Dancing on Empire’s Stage. Routledge. 

Thobani, S. (2018). Projects of reform: Indian classical dance and frictions of generation and Genre. MUSICultures, 44(1). 

Yijie Wang, Human Development and Family Studies
Wang, Y., Cham, H., Aladin, M. and Yip, T. (2017), Parental cultural socialization and adolescent private regard: Exploring mediating pathways through daily experiences. Child Development.

Vaughn W. M. Watson, Department of Teacher Education 
Hess, J., Watson, V. W. M., & Deroo, M. (in press). “Show some love:” Youth and teaching artists enacting literary presence and musical presence in an after-school literacy-and-songwriting project. (Teachers College Record).

Watson, V. W., & Knight-Manuel, M. G. (2017). Challenging popularized narratives of immigrant youth from West Africa: Examining social processes of navigating identities and engaging civically. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 279-310.

Noteworthy Awards and Grants