Political science has a fraught history with the study of race and the treatment of the people who study race (Ferguson Reference Ferguson2016; McClain et al. Reference McClain, Ayee, Means, Reyes-Barrientez and Sediqe2016). This is a long-standing issue that has been discussed at length in many venues. In PS, our colleagues have written about the racial climate in political science and the challenges that scholars of color—particularly junior scholars—may encounter while pursuing this path (Alexander-Floyd Reference Alexander-Floyd2008; Lavariega Monforti and Michelson Reference Lavariega Monforti and Michelson2008; Preston and Woodard Reference Preston and Woodard1984; Sinclair-Chapman Reference Sinclair-Chapman2019). The underrepresentation of scholars of color, coupled with the climate we may face, has left many without invaluable mentorship and support within their own departments. This has inspired leaders in the discipline—many of whom are scholars of color—to confront the lack-of-mentorship problem by outlining best practices for mentors (Alex-Assessnoh et al. Reference Alex-Assensoh, Givens, Golden, Hutchings, Wallace and Whitby2005; Jordan-Zachery Reference Jordan-Zachery2004); creating funds to support scholars of color (Michelson Reference Michelson2006); and creating groups that harness the power of social media to address disparities in the field, most notably Women Also Know Stuff (Beaulieu et al. Reference Beaulieu, Boydstun, Brown, Yi Dionne, Gillespie, Klar, Krupnikov, Michelson, Searles and Wolbrecht2017).
People of Color Also Know Stuff
In this context, People of Color Also Know Stuff (@POCAlsoKnow) was created (figure 2). Our mission is to alleviate some of the issues associated with the “leaky pipeline,” and we concentrate primarily on the recruitment and retention of graduate and early-career scholars. A key aspect of our mission is to be inclusive across intersectional lines. This means that we seek to be cognizant of how gender identities, class backgrounds, sexual identities, and institutional contexts impact the advancement of scholars of color.
Figure 2 People of Color Also Know Stuff Logo
Our goal is to serve as a platform for cross-institutional collaboration and provide support through the promotion of scholarship, as a resource for mentoring efforts, and as an amplifying voice for the concerns of scholars of color. We hope to create a space in which we can facilitate the creation of a healthy and sustainable community for POC experts in political science.
First, we created a website (POCExperts.org) with a directory of scholars of color across all subfields in political science. Using this directory, anyone seeking to diversify their syllabus, manuscript, or news story can locate a scholar of color with expertise in various fields.
Making It Happen
We have taken several actions. First, we created a website (POCExperts.org) with a directory of scholars of color across all subfields in political science. Using this directory, anyone seeking to diversify their syllabus, manuscript, or news story can locate a scholar of color with expertise in various fields. We currently have 179 scholars of color registered.
For 2018–2019, we created a directory of junior scholars of color on the market. As Gasman (Reference Gasman2016) discussed in the Washington Post, a common reason given for the lack of faculty of color in higher education is that there simply are not enough “qualified” people of color to hire. We reject this notion. We provide a convenient way of finding scholars of color on the market by their subfields and research interests for hiring departments to recruit a diverse pool of applicants. We had 74 job candidates for the 2018–2019 cycle—again, across subfields.
We take seriously the importance of celebrating others’ accomplishments and promoting one another to build a healthy community. For cultural reasons, many may feel uncomfortable self-promoting. We provide space for colleagues to submit their “wins” on our website so that we may use our following to amplify and celebrate their accomplishments.
At the 2018 APSA Annual Meeting, we began what we plan to be a tradition of inviting graduate students and junior scholars on the market to distribute conference materials with the @POCAlsoKnow logo. We encourage seniors to find the juniors with the conference swag and learn about their work. Junior scholars interested in getting involved at conferences can direct-message us on Twitter (@POCAlsoKnow).
Moving Forward
We teamed with APSA to field questions on how we could be most effective in completing our objective and found that our services have been used for discipline visibility and diversification of syllabi. Furthermore, we hosted a panel on “Recruiting and Retaining Scholars of Color” at the 2019 APSA Annual Meeting. Plans for mentoring workshops also are underway. We reject the idea that political science must be an unwelcoming place for people of color. Junior scholars of color are the future of this discipline. Through our efforts, we aim to create an inclusive community for all.
