Promoting Multicultural Excellence in the Academy 

With DU Graduate Studies, the Center for Multicultural Excellence has hosted a national summer institute designed to address the underrepresentation of faculty of color and women in academia. The institute has hosted a total of 113 doctoral students of color and women representing more than twenty-three universities including Harvard, Columbia, Maryland, Michigan, Arizona, CU-Boulder, University of Denver, Berkeley, UCLA and Stanford. For the past six years, staff of the institute have identified a diverse group of doctoral candidates represent a variety of disciplines including political science, engineering, higher education, sociology, psychology, modern thought and literature, german studies, spanish, english, history, library information science, counseling psychology, human communication and social work.

Goals of the institute are:

• for participants to clarify their career goals in relation to pursuing a faculty career
• to provide doctoral students of color and women with the necessary training to prepare them for faculty positions in higher education
• to increase the national pool of potential faculty of color and women by preparing participants to be competitive in the job market
• to bring these highly qualified and sought after scholars to Denver with the goal of preparing them to eventually seek employment and diversify applicant pools at the University of Denver (DU)
• to develop a national network of faculty of color and women in academia with the objective of increasing the national pool of available faculty of color

To pursue the goals outlined above, the four-day institute consists of seminars focusing on strategies for completing the dissertation; preparing a curriculum vita and cover letter; negotiating faculty contracts; publishing; balancing research, teaching and community service; understanding the tenure process; preparing a job talk; seeking and valuing mentoring and networking; the politics of obtaining tenure; and overcoming various employment obstacles and challenges. National experts from around the country are invited to present on the various topics providing participants with practical, current and cutting edge information, and insight into the process of entering the academy.

For additional information, contact:

Contact: Tracey Adams-Peters

Phone: (303) 871-2942