M. Cristina Alcalde

Dr. M. Cristina Alcalde, a Peruvian native, is Miami University’s Vice President of Office of Institutional Diversity & Inclusion (OIDI). Dr. Alcalde’s family moved from Peru to the U.S. when she was in elementary school. Her father was awarded a Fulbright to study in the U.S., so her family all moved together. As a result, she has transnational family ties to various locations. She says those ties help her feel grounded wherever she is; “I can be perceived as or feel as both an insider and outsider at times, depending on the circumstances and group.” 

 

The mission of the OIDI is to lead in creating and sustaining a diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive learning and working community representative of our broader society, and in which students, faculty, and staff feel connected, accepted, and valued. Alcalde and OIDI work across the university, with all units and groups. She says that OIDI provides opportunities for the Miami community to continue our learning and engage in meaningful programming that recognizes, examines, and values historical legacies of a diverse array of identities.

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When asked if she feels personally represented, she says that “there are very few Latina full professors nationally and even fewer Latina women in senior leadership administrative positions, in higher ed overall rather than only in Miami.” Statistics on university professors and Faculty provide an insight into what Dr. Alcalde is talking about. Nationally, only about 3% of all university faculty are Latina and only 2% of all full-professors are Latina. When it comes to getting coveted tenured positions, Latina professors are less likely to be put on the tenure track. Only 4% of tenured or tenure-track female professors are Latina; comparatively 78% are white.

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Part of OIDI’s goals is to cultivate a more diverse community to combat the institutional barriers that are preventing Latinas and other minority and marginalized groups from fully participating and succeeding in university activities. According to Alcalde, there are always possibilities for Miami, a predominately white institution, to become more inclusive and diverse. Doing so is critical to Miami’s core commitments, so the key is to continue to move forward in the short and long term to focus on systemic change where needed. It is also important to have--and build-- support networks so those whose identities are under-represented are supported and included holistically and intentionally.

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In addition to personally embodying a trajectory of Peruvian transmigration, and advocating for the diversification of representation at a PWI in the Midwest, Alcalde is also a leading scholar on the subject of belonging in migration narratives. She examines the ways that class and racial identities shift along with migrant mobility, and finds, for example, that “Peruvians may work to differentiate themselves from existing Latinx identities as a way to separate themselves from lower-status internal Others.” This pattern might well be observed across other Latin American migrants as their identities are reframed in the U.S. 

Given her personal story and her academic preparation, Alcalde is well positioned to champion the Latin American and Latinx population at Miami University.

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