Professor Watchlist

Ms. Angela Putman is an Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Pennsylvania State University at Brandywine. According to her university biography, Professor Putman describes herself as a “critical intercultural scholar.” Her biography states that she is interested in “whiteness as an ideology” and “institutional/systemic racism”, and encourages her students to promote and practice “social justice.”

Ms. Putman completed her dissertation at the University of New Mexico, titled, “Interrupting the Silence: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Pilot Seminar on Racism, Intersectionality, and White Privilege.” The paper is based on a seminar that she created in order to teach college students about dismantling white privilege in their own lives.

Ms. Putman’s stated goal was to help her students “strengthen their understanding of systemic racism and white privilege and also provide them with useful strategies for confronting and disrupting white privilege in their lives, relationships, groups, and organizations.”

In the dissertation, Ms. Putman outlines the various ideas and beliefs that she states are products of “white privilege,” including the ideas of America as a meritocracy, color-blindness, and individualism.

At the conclusion of her dissertation, Ms. Putman laments that many of the seminar participants still reverted back to these “white privilege” positions–or what Putman labels, “individualistic definitions of racism” that uphold “whiteness.” Putman states that it’s ultimately up to her as a white scholar with “privilege and power” to incorporate the dismantling of white privilege into her teaching.

Ms. Putman also writes for her personal blog, titled White Priv Doc. On one page of the site, Professor Putman urges “other whites” to utilize the resources she provides to join in the struggle to dismantle systemic racism.

 

 

In a blog post titled “White America, It’s Time For Us To Get Involved”, Ms. Putman lists examples and actions that she believes white people should adopt to dismantle systemic racism.

In one example, Ms. Putman suggests that parents talk to their children, “no matter how young they are,” about race and social justice. In another example, she urges white people to show up to protests prepared to “force the police to arrest them.

The Professor Watchlist Team reached out to Ms. Putman for comment but has not received a reply by the time of publication.

 

Parents and Students may contact Pennsylvania State University-Brandywine at (610) 892-1200.

Updated – July 2021