A recent study found that the number of visible minorities represented among academic faculty at two different universities was “well below labour market expectations,” according to the Toronto Star.
The study—conducted by Isalean Harris—was published in her thesis. Harris used data collected by Saint Mary’s University and Dalhousie University on each of their faculty members.
In addition to collecting this data, Harris interviewed Black women professors with tenured positions at post-secondary institutions across Canada.
She said it was difficult to find interviewees for this part of her thesis, because there were so few to be found.
The results of Harris’s research are concerning and show that there needs to be more diversity amongst the backgrounds of faculty tenured at Canadian post-secondary institutions.
Harris said during her undergraduate studies at SMU, she encountered only one Black female professor. She said she felt alienated and undervalued as a result of not seeing her identity reflected in her school’s faculty.
It is important for racialized students to see themselves represented among the faculty at their university.
Racialized students having professors that can understand some of the day-to-day struggles that they face—issues which faculty members who are not people of colour may not be able to support them through—makes the post-secondary experience much easier to get through.
