Higher education is in trouble, and not only due to a decline of public trust. As a microcosm of our broader culture, universities are inequitable and often harmful, especially for marginalized people. This is despite the democratic promise of higher education as a path for learning and social mobility. Women, people of color, First Gen, disabled, LGBTQ+, and other minoritized groups are disproportionately harmed in educational institutions that are hierarchical and reproduce inequality. Efforts to foster belonging for faculty, staff, and students may be highly effective but are under attack.
Betrayal U intervenes in this context with a diverse, rich collection of essays, art, poetry, and research that explores these inequities through the lens of institutional betrayal, theorized by psychologist Jennifer Freyd. Edited by Rebecca G. MartÍnez and Monica J. Casper, this collection brings together thirty-six contributors who share personal experiences covering a range of topics in higher education. The work spans five thematic sections that examine the complexities of belonging and exclusion in academic settings.
The contributors share their lived experiences of academic life from diverse vantage points, showing the ways minoritized groups are made to feel unwelcome, further marginalized, and often positioned as the problem. Exhibiting courage, compassion, and a commitment to better futures, the voices in this collection offer both a searing indictment of higher education and pathways to alternative practices and structures. They shine a spotlight on academia today, including the promise of inclusion and the perils of exclusion.
Contributors
Celeste Atkins
Jasmine Banks
Krista L. Benson
Jessica Bishop-Royse
Samit Dipon Bordoloi
Monica J. Casper
Aparajita De
Kathy Diehl
Taylor Marie Doherty
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt
Alma Flores
Alanna Gillis
C. Goldberg
Jennifer M. Gómez
Kristina Gupta
Jasmine L. Harris
Susan Hillock
Doreen Hsu
Jennifer Lai
Amy Andrea Martinez
Rebecca G. MartÍnez
Shantel Martinez
Sara A. Mata
Rachael McCollum
Wang Ping
Emily Rosser
AngÉlica Ruvalcaba
Brandy L. Simula
Rashna Batliwala Singh
Cierra Raine Sorin
Connor Spencer
Chantelle Spicer
Introduction
Monica J. Casper and Rebecca G. MartÍnez
1. Terca Pero No Pendeja
Amy Andrea Martinez
Part I. Betrayal
2. Pity the Nation—After Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Wang Ping
3. Reflections on Belonging and Betrayal from “One of Those Gender Studies People”
Taylor Marie Doherty
4. A Ton of Feathers: Betrayals in Academia
Susan Hillock
5. Vice-Chancellor Bliss-Simpson
Matthew Wills
6. Dirty Money and Deliberate Indebtedness
Jasmine Banks
7. Teaching Up: How My Dream Job Became a Nightmare
Celeste Atkins
8. Institutional Betrayal and the Role of Male Allies in Supporting Women in Higher Education
Meg A. Warren and Samit D. Bordoloi
Part II. Gender-Based Violence / Seexual Assault / Title IX
9. When I Naively Thought a Guilty Finding Meant We Won: Title IX and Institutional Betrayal in a PhD Program
Alanna Gillis
10. #MeTooUC: An Anthropological Account of the University of California’s Response to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment
Cierra Raine Sorin
11. What We Did with Institutional Betrayal: The Open Secrets Project on Faculty Sexual Violence in Canada
Connor Spencer, Chantelle Spicer, and Emily Rosser (Students for Consent Culture Canada)
Part III. Belonging
12. The Story of Ping—Living Through Mao and Trump
Wang Ping
13. Tracking the Academy: Experiencing My Projects of Belonging
Aparajita De
14. Xenophobia in the Academy: Who Gets a Seat at the Campus Roundtable?
Rashna Singh
15. Who Belongs in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies?
Kristina Gupta
16. Teaching While Brown: Understanding Latina Faculty Experiences in Higher Education
Mercedes Valadez and Alma Flores
17. Who Can Be a Scholar? Identity, Power, and Intellectual Labor in the Academy
Brandy L. Simula and Jessica Bishop-Royse
18. Mapping Place and Constructing Space: How Black Students Respond to Non-Belonging at a PWI
Jasmine Harris
Part IV. Disability / Health / (Non)Normative Bodies
19. Disability (In)Justice: Disabled Scholars in an Ableist World
Rachael McCollum and Krista L. Benson
20. Audre Lorde’s Army of One-Breasted Women
Sara A. Mata
21. Un/Due Hardship and Class(Room) Struggles: Pedagogies and Procedures of Accommodation
C. Goldberg
22. Is It Just Me? Mental Health and Institutional Perspectives from a Graduate Writing Consultant
Doreen Hsu
Part V. Resistance and Resilience
23. I Am Not Just a Body but Also a Soul: The Power of Erasure Amidst Hypervisibility on a Faculty Search Committee
Jennifer M. GÓmez
24. Institutional Compassion: Counterstories to Betrayal in Sociology
Jennifer Lai and AngÉlica Ruvalcaba
25. Out of the Shadows
Kathy Diehl
26. La Llorona of the Academy
Shantel Martinez
27. Becoming a Problem
James M. Thomas (JT)
Afterword. Institutional Violence, Complaints, and Betrayals: Behind Closed Doors
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt
Rebecca G. MartÍnez is an independent researcher and writer. Her research interests include reproductive health, Latin America, Chicanx studies, migration, and critical university studies.
Monica J. Casper is dean of arts and sciences and a professor of sociology at Seattle University. A First Gen scholar, she is the author of numerous books, essays, and articles and is also a creative writer.
