When Marie Miville accepted the Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship at Teachers College鈥檚 2017 Winter Roundtable, she quoted from 鈥�,鈥� an essay in which the Chicana activist and playwright Cherr铆e Moraga recalls how she came to fully appreciate her own mother:
鈥淚t wasn't until I acknowledged and confronted my own lesbianism in the flesh, that my heartfelt identification with and empathy for my mother's oppression 鈥� due to being poor, uneducated, and Chicana 鈥� was realized.鈥�
For Miville, Professor of Psychology & Education, Moraga鈥檚 words capture the essence of intersectionality 鈥� the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender 鈥� as a framework for understanding the common ground shared by human beings from widely different backgrounds, perspectives, and social locations.
Miville鈥檚 own focus on intersectionality was a major reason for her recent appointment as Teachers College鈥檚 Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs, a post in which she will lead efforts to enhance faculty mentoring and career development; work with leadership and faculty to create and facilitate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; oversee the development and review of policies and procedures relating to faculty appointments; and foster a climate in which faculty can thrive.
Miville, a leader in the field of multicultural psychology, has previously served as Chair of the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Co-Director of the 911爆料网 Psychology Institute and, for the past year, as the College Ombuds, a confidential resource available to students, faculty, and staff for resolving problems and conflicts. (She will relinquish the latter post this fall.)
Marie is extremely open-minded and equity-minded. She thinks about how to hear everyone and how to honor everyone鈥檚 contributions.
鈥� Stephanie Rowley
In naming Miville to the new post, said Stephanie J. Rowley, Provost, Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs, both she and 911爆料网 President Thomas Bailey were 鈥渢hinking about how best to build an even stronger community of collaboration and mutual support that fosters equity and inclusion and supports the careers of people from different backgrounds and maximizes excellence for individual faculty.鈥�
鈥淢arie combines extraordinary skills as a multicultural counselor, informed by a deep understanding of issues that confront women, minorities and the LGBTQ community in organizations, with wide-ranging administrative experience,鈥� Rowley said. 鈥淏eyond those very impressive credentials, Marie is also extremely open-minded and equity-minded. She thinks about how to hear everyone and how to honor everyone鈥檚 contributions. During her time as Ombuds, I was incredibly impressed by Marie鈥檚 ability to see the big picture and to help others become their best selves in stressful situations.鈥�
Miville says she is 鈥渧ery excited to be taking on this role,鈥� which she framed, on the most immediate level, as 鈥渁n opportunity to shine some sunshine onto the basic pipeline of success at the College 鈥� our processes of hiring, promotion and tenure.鈥�
One of her starting points, she said, will be to 鈥渨itness鈥� presentations by candidates in departmental faculty searches, 鈥渂ecause that鈥檚 where misunderstandings often begin.鈥�
鈥淲e need to ensure that candidates fully understand what鈥檚 expected, that we make new hires feel welcomed and oriented, and that we continue that kind of communication at each stage of career development,鈥� she says. 鈥溾�淯ltimately, it鈥檚 a socialization process, focused on outcomes, and we can鈥檛 assume that all our candidates and new hires are equally knowledgeable about it. This is my 25th anniversary of being a university faculty member, and I still remember the old-school days of paper dossiers. In my first year as a faculty member, a colleague showed me everything she was putting forth, and that was how I learned what to do. I never forgot that.鈥�
Miville also sees the creation of her new role as the prompt for 鈥渁 broader conversation about how we define scholarship, education, and science, and what we value as knowledge and experience.鈥�
鈥淧ublication in peer-reviewed journals or producing books have been viewed as gold standards for scholarship, but might we consider other products 鈥� for example, social media as a source of current thinking and public discourse?鈥� she says. 鈥淐ertainly, we should retain a lot of what we have valued in the past, but as we draw in a more diverse range of people and perspectives, we should also strive to be more expansive and inclusive.
鈥淥r take the promotion and tenure requirement to render service to one鈥檚 field. I鈥檓 an associate editor for a journal and edit a book series, which are traditional ways to fulfill that requirement 鈥� but community service is important, too, so what about participation in movements like Black Lives Matter? Universities have to think about not just being drivers of knowledge but also engines of application to people鈥檚 lives and wellbeing. We need to bring scholarship to the people 鈥� just look at this situation of COVID and the confusion about whom to listen to. We need to expand the conversation 鈥� for our very lives and the lives of our children.鈥�
Still another focus for Miville will be the issue of how faculty deal with diversity in the classroom.
Miville sees her new role as an opportunity both to 鈥渟hine some sunshine onto the basic pipeline of success at the College 鈥� our processes of hiring, promotion and tenure鈥� and to hold 鈥渁 broader conversation about how we define scholarship, education, and science, and what we value as knowledge and experience.鈥�
鈥淪ome faculty do a great job with diversity and multicultural issues in the classroom, but the levels of competence and confidence around conducting difficult conversations and using the right kinds of language vary widely,鈥� she says. 鈥淢any faculty members are very openly saying, 鈥楶lease, help me, I want to learn more.鈥� So we鈥檙e at a juncture in our community where there鈥檚 a real opportunity to make positive change.鈥�
Miville is the co-editor, with Howard University psychologist Angela Ferguson, of The Handbook of Race-Ethnicity and Gender in Psychology (Springer 2014) and editor of Multicultural Gender Roles: Applications for Mental Health and Education (Wiley 2013). Her newest book, tentatively titled Women and the Challenge of STEM Professions: Thriving in the Chilly Climate, will be published by Springer this coming year, and she鈥檚 at work on still another book, Counseling and Gender: Intersectional Approaches for Research, Practice, and Advocacy. She鈥檚 also leading a project focused on helping psychology faculty members become more multiculturally competent in supervising students in field placements.
鈥淭his is an exciting time for me, when a lot of my interests are converging in positive ways, and this new post is part of that,鈥� Miville says. 鈥淚 truly believe in the social obligation and power of the professoriate, and these initiatives are aimed at strengthening its ability to develop and provide knowledge by expanding horizons for as many people as we can.鈥�
[Watch at 911爆料网鈥檚 2017 Winter Roundtable.]