WORKSHOP: Pathways:Improving the African American Presence in Comparative Politics and International Relations to Improve Scholarship and Teaching

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

General Summary The Pathways workshops are designed to address the lack of African-American faculty who conduct research and teach in quantitative Comparative Politics and International Relations within Political Science. The purpose of this grant proposal is to request funding for two new workshops and mentor institutional visits. The workshops and visits are designed to provide an environment in which senior faculty in these fields of study provide feedback to junior faculty in order to support publication and tenure. The outcome anticipated is an increase in the number of African-American tenured faculty in these fields of study. We expect that their scholarship will inform major academic and policy debates as well as produce senior faculty who are able to mentor the next generation of young scholars in the profession. A network among senior and junior scholars in the field will also be created. Technical Summary The workshops and mentor institutional visits are designed to provide feedback from senior faculty in these fields to junior faculty, post-doctoral students and graduate students on how to publish and navigate the tenure process. Verbal and written feedback on the junior participant's work will be provided during the workshops which will be held at two major professional conferences: the American Political Science Association's and the International Studies Association's annual meetings. Junior participants will present a manuscript in progress in a formal presentation to all of the senior and junior workshop participants. Verbal and written comments are expected. In addition, mentor institutional visits to junior participant's home university institutions after the workshops as well as virtual meetings via Google Hangout are mechanisms designed to provide continuous feedback during the tenure process. Simultaneously, this allows senior faculty to learn more about the tenure requirements of the particular institution at which junior faculty seek tenure and to advise on how to produce a research, teaching and service record that satisfies tenure requirements at the national academic disciplinary and local university levels.