Outside In: Voices from the Margins, Baker Barbara a., De Vries Joyce

Part of the antiquated organizational structure of many institutions of higher education, particularly in the Deep South, is that they continue to be administrated by mostly men, setting up conceptual challenges to the very inclusion, diversity, and equity for which the universities are seemingly calling. This volume addresses this irony by granting the power of speaking ones own truth to those who have most closely experienced the repercussions of exclusion, particularly from the decision-making and policy-setting arenas of university administrations. The narratives included in Outside In: Voices from the Margins are written by academic practitioners who claim their agency within their work environments by acknowledging that they have experienced this exclusion because of some facet of their humanness such as their gender and/or ethnicity. The essays provide specific examples of instances, events, and situations in which the authors found themselves outside of the majority, often shut out of the like-minded comradery and typically hierarchical movement through academe that perpetuates a predominantly male leadership. By contextualizing these experiences within their academic disciplines and indicating the effect that their exclusion has had on their teaching, outreach, and research projects, the authors have created experientially-infused discipline content intended to drive change within their areas of expertise, across their disciplines, and throughout their academic communities. In so doing, the authors summon a collective intention to move from their perceived positions outside of the decision-making spheres of academe toward the full possibility of inclusion for themselves and future generations of academics.