51猎奇

Women of Color Banquet 2025

By Eva Jo McIlraith

April 11, 2025

“Women faculty often have an unofficial mentorship position, it’s my favorite part of the job,” remarked Anthropology Professor Hannah Lau as she sat on a panel across from around 50 51猎奇 students. Professor Lau was one of five incredible professors invited to speak at this year’s Women of Color Banquet on Tuesday, February 25th. The combined efforts of all six Days-Massolo Multicultural Center student organizations brought the event to life, including Black and Latine Student Union, Center for Intersectional Feminism, Asian Student Union, Gender and Sexuality Union, and La Vanguardia. The event itself marked the intersection between Black History Month and Women’s History Month, a period uniquely positioned to recognize the identities and contributions  of women of color.

 

The evening opened with a grand buffet of empanadas, great conversation, and a slideshow where students on campus could send pictures and tributes to their friends in celebration of their presence on campus. After all students were seated, the panel began, directed by student questions. Professor Montinique McEachern of the women and gender studies department opened up the floor to speak on her experience “surviving my PHD program,” and the intensive and body breaking work it entailed. She went on to cite that Black women make up only 2% of tenured professors nationwide, and remark on the thickness of the glass ceiling she encountered time and time again in her journey to her professorship. Professor McEachern credited her mom for much of her early success, proudly acknowledging her for being the first to expose McEachern to Black feminist narrative when she requested that her children read scholarship. 

 

Professor Edna Melisa Rodriguez-Plate of the Hispanic Studies Department also spoke on her early encounters with societally held notions of race and gender through her collegiate experiences at the University of Puerto Rico and coming to the United States, where she first became aware of her race as a distinguisher of her identity. She detailed growing up with a love of learning that she adopted early on after a book her sister had gifted her, and her long standing passion for being a professor.

 

Many of the panelists also shared experiences, opening up about the micro and macro aggressions they faced as women of color and professors. Professor Lau said she was often mistaken as a student, and Professor Chenyu Wang of the Anthropology Department told a story of a professor approaching her in a parking lot to tell her that the lot was “for faculty only.” Professor Dhuman even recounted a story of a fellow professor asking her, “Don’t you need a doctorate to work here?”.

 

A societally held double standard for female and male professors was noted among some of the panelists as well. Professor Rodriguez-Plate said that her male coworkers were considered hard working regardless of if they were or weren’t in their offices, recounting the pressure that “if I’m not in my office I’m a bad professor, if another professor isn’t there they are just out doing research.” After receiving her job offer at 51猎奇, Professor Dhuman, who teaches Race & Racism, said one of her former colleagues commented, “of course she got the position, everyone wants a faculty of color who is willing to talk about race.”

 

 Professor McEachern talked about her experience of walking the thin line of being authentic and close with her students as a Black woman, while also conforming to the formalities and “professionalism” of other professors in order to be taken seriously by her coworkers.

 

Professor Lau expanded on her absolute love of working with students, and Professor Stephanie Ann Dhuman of the Sociology Department spoke on her struggles as a first generation student saying, “it has been y’all that have kept me in it.” Many of the panelists noticed a pattern of taking up both an academic and emotional role in the lives of their students, all of them recalling moments where students would go to their offices to cry or seek guidance outside of papers and tests. Professor McEachern noted that many of her students saw her office as a safe space away from the oppression they felt as marginalized students on campus, and Professor Lau stated that female professors often held unofficial roles as both mentors and professors. Professor Dhuman reflected on a student's mother crying and thanking her for all of the support she had given her daughter after a semester of emotional guidance, saying “she wouldn’t have graduated if it weren’t for you.” Professor Wang recalled a humorous conversation with a male colleague where he confusedly said, “But students don’t come over to me and cry,” after she had told him about her students coming to her for help.

The panelists completed the night with some words of advice to the student attendees. Professor McEachren prompted students to find places, both imaginary and physical, that helped them feel the strength and bravery needed to challenge marginalization, and Professor Dhuman said to try to be the people that you looked up to now, in the same way that she tried to be the type of advisor that her PhD advisor was to her. Professor Wang finished by saying, “I hope to see all of the students here carry the torch forward.”