Genevieve O’Brien provides an enlightening look at the life of an adjunct lecturer. By reading O’Brien’s account, one understands how hard it can be for a lecturer to attain tenure. However, O’Brien’s story is not just about the difficulty of getting tenure. It is about the challenges that one faces as a lecturer of color, especially as an Asian American female lecturer.
O’Brien touches on an issue that I have always found disturbing. The issue of inequality in American schools. It is sometimes hard for a teacher to teach or for a student to concentrate on their studies when they are aware that some students already have spots reserved for them in society. Still, I find O’Brien’s story motivating because it was through her creation of a social media group that she realized what she should do in life. Her group brought her close to other women of color in academia (Hune et al., 2019).
(Google, n.d.)
She was able to understand that she was not the only adjunct who was facing tremendous challenges in the field of academia. At the same time, her group provided her and other members with the hope that they could achieve their dream of becoming notable scholars in their different fields. Still, it is fascinating how O’Brien chose to leave academia and pursue her passion for art (Hune et al., 2019).
The theme of the week has been Asian American studies. From this reading, I cannot help but see that it does not get easier for Asian Americans in academia. Clearly, it is hard for a graduate student of Asian origin to pursue their master’s or Ph.D. programs because while doing so, there are professors at every corner telling them how they have studied people from Vietnam and Korea (Hune et al., 2019). Indeed, this kind of reception can be distracting to a student. It might also lead them to wonder if they will ever be taken seriously, given that they are always viewed as study subjects. This leads me to wonder if people of color will ever be taken seriously, especially in academia?