T­­­he Faculty of Color and Indigenous Faculty Group at the Institute for the Arts and Humanities provides support, community, and professional and leadership development for faculty of color and Indigenous faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences and professional schools at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Overview

The Faculty of Color and Indigenous Faculty Group was created in spring 2017 by Kia Caldwell (Director of Faculty Diversity Initiatives 2015-2017), Mark Katz (IAH director 2014-2019), Jennifer Ho (IAH Associate Director 2016-2019), and Michele Berger (Director of the Faculty Fellowship Program, IAH, 2013-2018). The group was launched in fall 2017, with Jennifer Ho serving as the facilitator from 2017 to 2019. Since fall 2022, the Faculty of Color and Indigenous Faculty Group has been led by a five-member steering committee.

The group meets several times each semester. Past meetings have included faculty receptions, as well as meetings with guest speakers focused on professional and leadership topics of relevance to faculty of color and Indigenous faculty.

Suzanne Lye is chair of the FOCIF Steering Committee. The FOCIF Steering Committee includes Renée Alexander Craft, Dana Iglesias, and Amanda Greetham-Cobb.

Lye is currently the assistant professor for the Classics department. She received her A.B. from Harvard University, where she studied organic chemistry and the history of antibiotics. After receiving her Ph.D. in Classics from the University of California, Los Angeles, she was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Dartmouth College.

Her book Life / Afterlife: Revolution and Reflection in the Ancient Greek Underworld from Homer to Lucian, published in September, is available from Oxford University Press. She has also published on ancient epic, ancient religion and magic, ancient representations of gender and ethnicity, modern pedagogy, and Classical reception. Please visit this profile to learn more about her plans for this group.

For questions or to learn more about getting involved, contact Suzanne Lye at sclye@email.unc.edu.

Upcoming Events

Dec 3rd: Community Conversation on Mentoring & Navigating Difficult Dynamics. Join fellow members of the FOCIF group for an broad ranging conversation on mentoring and navigating difficult dynamics related to recent DEI and Affirmative Action decisions.

Join the Faculty of Color/Indigenous Faculty Group

If you are interested in joining the Faculty of Color and Indigenous Faculty Group, please complete this form.