Crafting Sustainable Careers as Minority Academics

In this essay, we reflect on our experiences in the academic profession with the aim to offer insights on how to craft sustainable careers as minority academics. While there has been engaged interest among business school scholars to study the myriad challenges encountered by those academics who occupy minority identity categories, there has been far less consideration of the strategies that can be adopted to navigate the profession in order to not only survive but to thrive. In presenting narrative ruminations related to research, teaching, and service, we illuminate certain shared themes found across our professional experiences that may provide strategies to other minority academics as they construct their own academic careers. These shared themes revolve around striking a delicate balance between playing the proverbial ‘game’ and remaining true to who we are. While ostensibly disclaiming any suggestion that we put forward an all-encompassing ‘solution’ to the challenges of a minority working as a management educator in today’s business school, this essay offers a set of ideas and practical advice on some of the paths available through which to craft sustainable careers in the academic profession.