Bridging the Divide Program, Korea Foundation and the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation

A post about our research trip to Seoul and the DMZ (forthcoming with photos).

From June 16th to June 21, eight Japan scholars from the US were selected to participate in a unique program sponsored by the Korea Foundation and the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation to deepen their engagement with and understanding of the politics of the peninsula. With visits to the Blue House, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Demilitarized Zone (the DMZ); and meetings with experts on security issues, intelligence, the denuclearization process, and South Korea’s domestic politics and economy, we are able to bring back what we learned to our students and do more comparative analysis. Frank Jannuzi led the group and his decades of experience proved valuable, especially in our security and defense focused sessions. Frank was personally involved in negotiations with North Korea and has years of experience working in Washington, DC on US relations with China and the East Asian region. This was an amazing and rewarding trip, and it inspired us all to think about the relationship the peninsula has to the countries we study (Japan, China, and the US). My favorite meeting was with the US Ambassador and his staff because we could talk more about the historical tensions between Japan and S. Korea. More to come about this as time permits over the summer. Thanks to Elly Cho for providing us with a wonderful cultural experience and for her utmost professionalism in handling the logistics. Thank you Korea Foundation for a learning and networking opportunity with Korean scholars and officials that we will never forget, and that will surely benefit our teaching and scholarship for years to come. I am excited to return to the classroom and develop more publications that include comparative analysis of Korean politics and Japan-S. Korea relations.

The First Year Seminar

Looking back on my three semesters at UB, I realized that I have learned the most I have ever learned about teaching in this short amount of time, and that the students at UB have given me the most valuable lessons I have ever learned about teaching because of the range of experiences they bring into the classroom and campus. They put into perspective what higher education is really all about—-to give each student the same chance at learning and to think honestly about what we truly mean by access, equity, and inclusion in higher ed. I learned a lot from teaching at a large public university like UCLA and private institutions on the west and east coasts, but at UB, I saw the greatest socio-economic and ethnic diversity of any school; and with many non-traditional students—students who are in ROTC, working parents, returning adults, and younger students balancing work and family responsibilities. I can not speak here of each personal challenge or trauma, but it is because of these students, I have learned again the importance of just listening and holding space for students to share their stories. When you hear what it is that they are actually juggling to finish school, you realize that it’s not about making the student adapt to what you think college is, but that college needs to also adapt and respond to the needs of a very different student body than 20 or 30 years ago.

The first year seminar at UB has also taught me the importance of building in time and space to talk about wellness with students and helping students find resources within themselves and on and off campus as they live, work, and study independently for the first time. Much of what I use in my first year seminar comes from the experiences I had teaching in UCLA’s Freshmen Summer Program as a grad student. We spent a summer working closely with students from underrepresented backgrounds as they transitioned to college and living away from their families for the first time. I understand now, that what FSP was doing was supporting and teaching the whole student with multi-level mentoring, tutoring, advising, and counseling. (More on this topic as time permits).

The Service of Minority Faculty is Discounted and Undervalued in a Field Meant to Serve Students: Higher Education

I am currently writing about this for Presumed Incompetent II: Race, Class, Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia that will come out in 2020 because minority faculty tend to do more service and that service is often in support of minority students, yet our time and care for students are not counted for tenure and promotion. It is not valued for retention and advancement even though it goes to the heart of our role as educators. For some faculty of color, this labor is not “service” but one of the main reasons we dedicated our lives to higher education to begin with, and it can be difficult for us to “just say no” and close our doors—as we are often advised— to minority students, especially in historically white institutions. We need to have honest discussions about who is doing much of this labor or service while others are able to avoid it or benefit from the volunteer efforts of untenured minority faculty to support minority students. In many institutions, visiting and contingent faculty provide these essential functions of care to minority students, but then are not retained—thus, the ever revolving door of minority faculty who go in and out of students’ lives. What does it say about academia or your institution when you are willing to allow visiting and contingent faculty, or minority faculty on the tenure track to take on these responsibilities of care, while not valuing their contributions for retention or promotion? Also, if you are a PWI and your assistant professors are all white while your visiting professors are all minorities, it’s time to do some deep reflection on why that is…do you truly have a culture with colleagues that welcomes difference in your department?

Welcome!

Even though I am trained as a political scientist, I have also created groups and initiatives in support of students, staff, and faculty of color, and served in leadership roles to promote diversity and inclusion at different types of learning institutions and within my profession. I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can help students from underrepresented groups thrive in college and in their careers, so I hope to share posts here about concrete ways in which we can promote inclusion and empowerment for our students in and out of the classroom. I created this blog so that my voice and experiences, as well as those of other faculty and students of color, could be included in wider debates about the future of higher education.  Often, our labor and ideas are not valued and recognized, which is why I want to use this space to honor and celebrate the work of educators who do the daily and invisible work of caring for our students and fellow colleagues. As a woman and woman of color, immigrant, first-gen, and former ESL and Pell grant student, who grew up in Jamaica, Queens, went to high school in the Bronx, and then earned a BA and PhD at UCLA,  I navigate and experience academia differently and have found that through writing and sharing our experiences, we can build community and sustain our efforts to realize our individual and collective goals to do our best for our students. There are many blindspots about mentoring, "colorblindness", and merit-based advancement in academia so I would like to address those barriers to advancement for women of color in particular. 

I will also post perspectives on politics, especially gender politics, and thoughts on a book project on women, war, and memory.

(I teach a 4/4 teaching load at UB and advise two majors, so please don’t expect too many posts).