Shawn Corey Carter, better known as Jay-Z, revolutionized the worlds of theater and hip-hop when he sampled “It’s the Hard Knock Life” from Annie and illustrated the intersectional reach of the struggle for acceptance. Yet, Jay-Z also poignantly demonstrated that all struggles for success are not created equal, as our upbringing and circumstances have a direct impact on how we understand and pursue acceptance. While our journeys into academia do not mirror the particular struggles Jay-Z highlights, as academics, particularly WOCs, we have all experienced kicking, tricking, and knocking in our internal dialogues and from external forces in legal academia.
A study by CLEA’s Committee for Faculty Equity and Inclusion in 2017 found that BIPOCs accounted for only 20% of all clinical faculty positions. Yet, despite an increase in clinicians of color from 1980 to 2017—including an increase of clinicians categorized as Asian Americans from 2 to 6%—progress has been largely stagnant in the inclusion of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous faculty. Aimed at reducing some of these barriers to academia, clinical fellowship programs allow practitioners to transition into legal academia with the necessary support and guidance to enter the teaching market. However, these programs, even as they continue to proliferate, also pose their own accessibility conundrums. This concurrent session, through the lens of three diverse clinicians of color, aims to highlight and address some of these obstacles to legal academia. In sharing their experiences, panelists hope to equip participants with the necessary skills, information, and relationships to successfully navigate or provide support to those navigating the teaching market.