UAH sociology professor honored at annual meeting of faculty diversity institute

The University of Alabama in Huntsville’s (UAHuntsville) Dr. Teresa Terrell was among 80 doctoral graduates honored recently at the Compact for Faculty Diversity’s 15th annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring. The institute brought together more than 1,000 students, faculty members and others for leadership training and workshops, networking and job interviews.

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and several partner organizations hosted the institute, which focuses national attention on the severe shortage of minority faculty members across the nation.

When the first institute was held 15 years ago, there were few minority faculty members outside of historically black colleges and universities. Today, about 5 percent of the professors at public four-year colleges in the United States are black, about 3 percent are Hispanic and less than 1 percent are American Indian — despite the fact that almost one-third of America’s college students are people of color.

Terrell, who earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Vanderbilt University, is adjunct professor in the UAHuntsville sociology department. Her areas of interest include community and urban sociology, race and ethnicity and social movements. She joined the UAHuntsville sociology faculty in last year.

On leave during the 2008-2009 academic year, Terrell participated in a postdoctoral fellowship in Race, Gender and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. The fellowship is a joint program of the Wilkins Center for Social Justice and the Center on Women and Public Policy and is designed to advance the field of intersectionality studies, promote interdisciplinary research, and facilitate critical dialog on Race, Gender, and Public Policy. Terrell has been chosen as one of two fellows for the 2008-2009 fellowship year. She will extend her dissertation research on civic participation in urban poor neighborhoods by investigating citizen participation in neighborhoods in North Minneapolis. She will also teach a graduate seminar based upon her research.

The SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program is part of a nationwide initiative, the Compact for Faculty Diversity, to produce more minority Ph.D.s and encourage them to seek faculty positions. Other Compact members include: the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Science Foundation Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Minority Ph.D. Program and the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program. SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region created SREB in 1948.