Marquette University Announces Mitchem Fellow Recipients Recipients finish work on their doctorate while gaining teaching experience Released: Jan. 11, 2007 Doctoral candidates working on issues of racial identity and economic status are completing their dissertations at Marquette University this year as Arnold L. Mitchem Dissertation Fellows and will be teaching courses beginning this month. The fellowships assist under-represented ethnic groups in joining the professorate by giving doctoral candidates from other U.S. universities one academic year of support and the opportunity to teach an undergraduate course at Marquette. This year’s recipients are Marcia Williams and Christopher Whitt. “I am thrilled at the opportunity to be a Mitchem Fellow,” Williams said. “The dean's office in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Sociology have been incredibly supportive of me and my research, and I am finding Marquette University to be a very interesting place. I am looking forward to getting to know the students when I teach in the spring term.” Williams’ dissertation is entitled, “Speaking Truth to Power: An Ethnographic Study of Critical Student Agency in a Midwestern School,” and her work will contribute to better understanding the relationship between racial identity, school culture and academic achievement. A New Jersey native, Williams earned her B.A. in liberal arts from Carleton College in Minnesota in 1993. She worked in the non-profit sector for the next five years before pursuing a doctoral degree in sociology at the University of Minnesota. She will teach a seminar in Marquette’s Department of Sociology. Christopher Whitt’s dissertation, “Unaffordable Outcomes: The Wealth Gap, Black Political Participation and Public Policy Outcomes in the Black Interest,” analyzes the impact of the racial wealth gap on black political participation and seeks to explore how wealth affects policy for an underrepresented group. Whitt will teach a course entitled “Race, Wealth and Inequality” in Marquette’s Department of Political Science.  A native of Baltimore, Maryland, he earned his B.A. in political science at Salisbury State University in 2000. He completed his M.A. in American Politics in 2003 at the University of Maryland, College Park, while working toward his Ph.D. During this time he met one of his greatest mentors, Dr. Linda F. Williams, who served as his advisor and dissertation committee chair. Williams recently passed away and Whitt is dedicating his work this year to her memory. “The Arnold L. Mitchem Fellowship has allowed me the opportunity to finish my doctoral research in a fresh and exciting environment as a faculty member,” Whitt explained.  “This experience has given me such a clear perspective of what to expect as I embark on my academic career and start as an assistant professor at a university next year.” Marquette established the fellowships in 2002 and they have served as “a gateway to the professorate for minority Ph.D. candidates,” said Dr. Keenan Grenell, associate provost for diversity at Marquette.  “The fellowships provide the resources that allow the student to focus solely on finishing the dissertation, while also gaining the valuable teaching experience that will enhance the professional dossier.  It is one of many ways we are bringing talented scholars of color to the Marquette campus.” The fellowship’s namesake, Dr. Arnold L. Mitchem, is an internationally recognized advocate of educational opportunity who earned his Ph.D. from Marquette in 1981. He is currently the president of the Council for Education Opportunity in Washington D.C. He also founded Marquette's Educational Opportunity Program and served as its director from 1969 through 1986. Office of Marketing and Communication Contacts Brigid O'Brien Miller Director of University Communication Phone: (414) 288-7445 Send e-mail