While the project does address issues of racism in general, our primary focus is on creating institutional conditions in which students of color can thrive, and this involves facilitating all student-student and faculty-student engagements.

All faculty are invited because we want them to know how to teach and mentor students of color better and not teach out of white normativity. Along with students of color, white students are invited because we want them to learn to support colleagues and students of color better and not perpetuate white normativity at Fuller or at their later vocational contexts.

When we say “Navigating (White Evangelical) Academia,” we mean primarily the problem of white normativity and structural racism that is pervasive in the academic enterprise worldwide (even if its manifestations are different outside of Europe and North America). We are not primarily focused on interpersonal issues, although they are important, nor on cultural differences, nor on increasing diversity without attending to white normativity. While the pressing problem of patriarchy and sexism will be incorporated as we recognize the dynamics of  intersectionality, for the purpose of this project, it will not be the primary entry point.

For those who lack an understanding of white normativity and structural racism or question their reality, it will be necessary to ramp up on those ideas through other means. There is a bibliography section below with scholarly materials for consideration. The nature of the problem is presupposed, so we will be building upon a basic understanding of white normativity and structural racism toward implementation and solutions. This baseline allows us to move forward instead of perpetually remaining in preliminary discussions.

Although we are focused on the evangelical academy in the United States, its influence around the world is pervasive, especially in other evangelical institutions. Hence we cannot understand how white normativity and structural racism are at work globally unless we comprehend their derivation and perpetuation in our immediate context (even as the reverse is also true and ought not to be neglected in our work). Therefore, while each context will have its distinctive features and challenges, in these FTE events, all international concerns and questions will be addressed out of a U.S. evangelical framing of the problem of white normativity.

Alcoff, Linda M., “Latino/as, Asian Americans, and the Black-White Binary.” The Journal of Ethics 7 (2003), no. 1, 5-27. (Fuller Library: Full Text)

Bradley, Anthony B., ed., Black Scholars in White Space: New Vistas in African American Studies from the Christian Academy. Eugen: Pickwick Publications, 2015. (Fuller Library)

Crenshaw, Kimberle, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum v1989 n1, 139-168. [Fuller Library]

Fryberg, Stephanie A., ed., and Ernesto Javier Martinez, ed., The Truly Diverse Faculty: New Dialogues in American Higher Education. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Gildersleeve, Ryan Evely et al. “’Am I Going Crazy?!’: A Critical Race Analysis of Doctoral Education.” Equity & Excellence in Education v44 n1 p93-114 2011. [Text]

Loyd-Paige, Michelle R., “Becoming an African American Academic Leader on a Predominantly White Christian Campus: The Use of Autoethnography as a Method for Exploring Mentoring Processes.” In Black Scholars in White Space: New Vistas in African American Studies from the Christian Academy, edited by Anthony B. Bradley, ch. 5. Eugen: Pickwick Publications, 2015.

McCoy, Dorian L. et al. “Colorblind mentoring? Exploring White faculty mentoring of students of color.” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Vol 8(4), Dec, 2015. pp. 225-242. [Fuller Library]

Morris, Michael, “Standard White: Dismantling White Normativity.” California Law Review 104 (2016), no. 4, 949-978. (Full Text)

Perea, Juan F., “The Black/White Binary Paradigm of Race: The Normal Science of American Racial Thought.”  California Law Review 85 (1997), no. 5, 1213-1258. (Full Text)

Sue, Derald Wing et al. “Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Implications for Clinical Practice.” American Psychologist 62 (May-June 2007), no. 4, 271-286. (Fuller Library: Full Text)

Sue, Derald Wing et al. “Racial Microaggressions and the Asian American Experience.” Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 13 (2007), no. 1, 72-81. (Fuller Library: Full Text)

Yong, Amos. “What Asian, Which American? Whose Evangelion? Whether Asian American Evangelical Theology?” Society of Asian North American Christian Studies (2012-2013), no. 4, 29-47.
(Full Text)