Discrimination against faculty with foreign accents

[Cynthia Dunn]

Hello all.  The union at my university has taken up the issue of
discrimination against faculty who are foreign-born or perceived to speak
English with an "accent".  We have had four cases in which foreign-born
faculty were denied tenure solely on the basis of poor student evaluations
of teaching.  I also know of at least one foreign-born person denied
promotion to full professor on the basis of poor student evaluations.
There is concern that these evaluations reflect student prejudice which is
accepted uncritically by higher administration.

I am very pleased that my union is taking up this issue.  The
administration has agreed to pay for an outside expert to come give a
lecture to educate them and the university community about these issues.
We have already suggested Bonnie Urciuoli, Rosina Lippi-Green, and Don
Rubin as possible speakers, but I wanted to ask if anyone has other
suggestions for scholars we could contact.  If you yourself work in this
area and would be willing to give a lecture or workshop on the topic,
please contact me off list and send a copy of your vita:
Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu


Cyndi Dunn
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Dept. of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminology
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls IA 50614-0513 U.S.A.

(319) 273-6251
Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu