Intellectual Capital in Academic Fields
heard, as long as you are bringing in some kind of money to universities, the university
loves it. And that’s something that we never learn in grad school, how to make money.
Dr. Pacheco has generated over 10 million dollars in revenue for his university. Yet, the
explicit concern for Dr. Pacheco about junior faculty is that they yet to develop the habitués on
how “to make money”. Research-driven universities as prestige seeking institutions pose unique
economic challenges to some Latino scholars. The observations of this paper reflect Slaughter’s
et al.’s (1997) discussion of institutions that reward “marketlike” actors. Latino faculty believed
academic mobility was linked to publication, at least in part, because of “success with market
and marketlike activities” (222).
DISCUSSION
Academic scientists have made head way in understanding the experiences of minority
faculty (Aguirre 2000; Turner 2007). I extend the concept of “capital” to examine the ideas
Latino faculty have about the reception and recognition of their intellectual capital for promotion
at a time when entrepreneurialism is normalizing. While many have long recognized that
publication cultures in top-tier journals confers prestige to many scholars, e.g., women (Karides
et al. 2001), like research on Hispanic/Latino faculty does not exist.
My aim was to contextualize what is known and what is ignored in the studies of ethnic
minority faculty in various academic fields. Meticulous attention was paid to contextualize the
sensemaking ability of interviewees in light of the expectations for promotion in situations where
proprietary research is salient. The following insights contribute to disciplinary literature: 1) new
explanations for an absence of Latino articles in mainstream journals to specify the conditions
for increased visibility, e.g., methodology equated with veneer legitimacy of topic; 2) a
transformation of social research from progressive politics to progressive economics, e.g.,
socioeconomic contract to redistribute unequal resources to historically subordinated
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Convention