The 2023 Women of UD

Mary B. Ziskin

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR / DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION

“It’s kind of hard to imagine doing anything without community. There are so many people here doing such inspiring work. I see my job as a methodologist and educator to examine and unpack how racism and other systems of privilege and oppression really shape our everyday experiences. I feel very fortunate for the students and the colleagues all around me who are working to unbuild inequities. 

In the Ph.D. and Ed.D. programs where I teach we have a tremendous community of students, working on producing equity, working on transforming organizations and institutions, and I have incredible colleagues as well, all over the university, Leslie Picca, Leah Ward, Tiffany Taylor Smith and Merida Allen …so all of that work is all throughout the organization, and it's not even always the usual powerful positions that you might see. We have students from outside of UD too. That impacts the connections that folks make, and hopefully the practices that spread out from UD. The Ed.D. is online, so then that’s a community all over the country, all over the world. We’ve a student last year in Qatar, and a student this year in Nigeria, attending class at 1 in the morning, at 4 in the morning. 

So, being in that amazing company, and being free to teach and discuss how systems shape our lived experience and how knowledge construction is a really important part of that. This is what originally drew me to become a methodologist.

Being born into this country, I grew up with a lot of privileges. As white folks we are socialized to not see that. I grew up in the 70’s when there was a lot of tracking in schools, so that was plain to see, and the community where I lived was diverse enough so I was able to see inequities, and how central education is to that. 

I was in music…at some point I felt I wasn’t talented enough to make the actual making of music meaningful…and it really came back to me how central schools and educational institutions are…just this incredible social site where we enact transformation, and we enact replication of the inequities that define our society. 

I finished my degree, I met my wife…I moved to be closer with her to Bloomington, Indiana. I landed a research job at Indiana University. I had an amazing 10 years there, scholars there look at how systems colonize the life world and how we interact on an everyday level. It was amazing to teach with them, but then I went on the market for a tenure track job and I was very fortunate to land the job here. It’s amazing to be at UD! There are so many disappointing things about universities in the United States. At UD we have all of these mission centered, really well integrated into the institution that UD is…we have a mission and values that mean we have very good reasons for not only talking about markets.

My job is to participate and care about producing equity in research, teaching and service. I don't have to be a big expert but I have to be a practitioner. I have to work on inclusive excellence in my own teaching and learning practice, in our programs.

What I know from the research is that changing the faculty is the most impactful thing you can do to change the climate for diversity at a university. The promotion and tenure policy- it’s like this little niche area, it's this very privileged group. It’s a very impactful moment, to change the expectations there, what it means to do a good job as an educator in this context, and produce an equitable and diverse learning environment for our students…it’s felt very engaging, rewarding and difficult. It's the thing that’s been on my mind for the past three years. I’m so happy the policy passed and that we’re going to have continued discussions.  

Teaching through 2020 was obviously a difficult time. The plain and frank discussions we had around the murder of George Floyd, the way students were vulnerable with each other and ultimately connected over the materials, that is something I’ll remember forever. 

As we graduate these doctoral students doing equity work that I’m so proud of, going out and being the leaders that I dream of, bringing reflective practice, action and good trouble to all the places where they work, that’s what we’re all here for, it’s what I’m here for.”