As people of color navigate the world, they make decisions on how they will operate in a complex society rooted in both systemic racism and sexism. Yet efforts to end harassment based on sex, sexuality, and gender have often operated separately from the fight to address systemic racism. In response to this problem, scholar-activists have established frameworks to understand how these systems support and maintain each other, and they have organized to develop solutions to remediate inequity and harm stemming from the intersections of racist and misogynistic cultures, policies, and practices.

For this Spark series, we invite authors whose scholarship explores harassment on the basis of sex, sexuality, and/or gender through an anti-racist lens to better understand the challenges and complexities of these experiences and offer informed solutions. We are seeking pitches for essays grounded in research and scholarship. Reflections on personal experiences as they relate to the issues may be incorporated. 

Essays might:

  • Offer practical examples, whether historical or current, of efforts to understand how racism can produce, shape, and amplify harassment based on sex, sexuality, and/or gender.
  • Report on federal, state, and local policies that have aimed to address harassment through an intersectional lens (or, conversely, that have failed to do so). What lessons can we learn for policy making?
  • Discuss anti-racist goals and solutions that decision-makers across institutions (e.g. education, healthcare, workplace) can take up to address harassment based on sex, sexuality, and/or gender in their given context.
  • Explore challenges and best practices for harassment prevention efforts that center anti-racist principles.

Please keep in mind that the audience for Spark is not specific to any discipline or education level. Envision the reader as someone with a broad understanding of research and scholarship, but without specific knowledge of your field. Pitches will be reviewed by considering public accessibility, grounding in diversity scholarship, and clear writing organization and style.

Authors must have previously produced scholarship or creative work directly related to the topic to ground the proposed essay. Priority selection will be given to members of the Diversity Scholars Network and those who co-author with graduate students. Invited contributors will receive writing guidelines and will be assigned an editor.

 

This series will be curated by Dr. Elizabeth R. Cole, professor of women's and gender studies, psychology, and Afroamerican and African studies; and faculty associate director at the National Center for Institutional Diversity, University of Michigan.

If you have any questions please contact ncidpublications@umich.edu.