Empowered - (Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed) by Chavella T Pittman (Hardcover)

About the Book

Drawing on extensive research, Pittman provides active measures for withstanding intersectional race and gender tensions, exercises to inoculate against toxic dynamics, and tools to resist being silenced and support being heard. Through these empowering strategies and exercises, women faculty of color can become the most powerful versions of themselves in their classrooms, and go on to make the most of their careers, contributions, and lives.

Book Synopsis

Experience tells us, and studies confirm, that women faculty of color are among the most overworked, unfairly criticized, and least rewarded individuals serving higher education today. They are also the most thwarted when it comes to the basic goals of an academic career: tenure, security, and personal satisfaction. This, despite ranking as some of the most talented teachers we have: Women faculty of color disproportionately overdeliver on higher education's loftiest promise--preparing students to contribute to the world. In this book, these highly effective, overworked, underappreciated women will find expert guidance, encouragement, and practical steps to meet the outsized challenges women of color face in academia, and finally get what they've long since earned.

In Empowered, Chavella T. Pittman distills decades of practice to show women faculty of color how to be unapologetically authentic in their teaching, speak up in reviews about their classroom excellence, and to offer themselves compassion. And, to recover a sense of joy in what they do. Drawing on extensive research, Pittman provides active measures for withstanding intersectional race and gender tensions, exercises to inoculate against toxic dynamics, and tools to resist being silenced and support being heard. Through these empowering strategies and exercises, women faculty of color can become the most powerful versions of themselves in their classrooms, and go on to make the most of their careers, contributions, and lives.

Review Quotes

"Empowered is a groundbreaking book by a gifted writer. Drawing on meticulous research and a vast amount of lived experience, Chavella Pittman offers engaging, humorous, encouraging, and flat-out inspiring advice to women faculty of color facing daily teaching inequities and threats in the academy. It's a vital corrective to a glaring shortcoming in the field and a must-read for everyone working in higher education today."--Jessamyn Neuhaus, PhD, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence at Syracuse University


"This book is a game-changer for women of color and diverse faculty in general! It lays bare how societal inequities are just as present in higher education as in society at large while providing a playbook of how to deal with those pitfalls."--Anthony Christian Ocampo, PhD, Professor of Sociology, author of Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons and The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race


"As a woman of color faculty who had to quit an institution due to bigotry, I wish I'd had a book like Empowered: A Woman Faculty of Color's Guide to Teaching and Thriving. Dr. Pittman's evidence-based and practical advice is a must-read for anyone looking for guidance on how to navigate institutional inequality and thrive in the academy."--Nancy Wang Yuen, PhD, author of Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism


"Chavella Pittman offers an informative and refreshing read with a good mix of evidence-based content, coaching, and mentoring. Her book reads like messages from a strong mentor guiding readers through the challenges of teaching in higher education as a Black woman."--Stacey Lawrence, PhD, Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, Brown University

"Clear and actionable solutions to teaching traps that put women faculty of color and their careers in peril. This book is a concise how-to guide that gets straight to the point and offers practical recommendations. Read it! Share it!"--Carmen G. Gonzalez, JD, co-editor of Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia


"Dr. Chavella Pittman is a clear and compelling mentor who compassionately dares to compound the positive impact of women faculty of color, despite the many odds. A long-awaited, essential book."--Kerry Ann Rockquemore, PhD, author of The Black Academic's Guide to Winning Tenure Without Losing Your Soul


"Every campus leader and faculty developer should read this book! Dr. Pittman simultaneously empowers women faculty of color and increases everyone else's awareness of the challenges that our colleagues face. Her call to action includes supporting diverse faculty members' teaching and careers. For allies not sure how to start, Dr. Pittman offers an appendix with concrete strategies for removing obstacles, normalizing less-common teaching practices and promoting structural change."--Kevin Kelly, EdD, Lecturer Faculty, author of Making College Courses Flexible: Supporting Student Success Across Multiple Learning Modalities