Emerson College Library: Teach-in on Race 2025: Session 4: DEI in Academia: What it is, what it isn't, and how to move forward

Description

Session 4: DEI in Academia: What it is, What it isn't, and How to Move Forward

Thursday, February 6, 10:00-11:00 AM - On Zoom: Register

As of August 2024, there were 14 states that passed anti-DEI laws eliminating DEI offices at colleges and universities across the United States. At Emerson, our moniker for “DEI” is “EASJ” or equity, access, and social justice. We consider EASJ as a vital part of maintaining an effective learning and working environment. During this panel discussion between ProArts faculty and administrators on the changing landscape of DEI in higher education, participants will examine what DEI entails, share best practices in inclusive teaching, explore common misconceptions about DEI, consider what changes are anticipated in the near future, and the potential long-term impact as DEI faces mounting opposition in the US political landscape.

Panelists
Monroe France, Vice Provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence, Tufts University
Monique Van Willingh, Interim Dean of Students and Campus Life, Director of Cultural Equity and Belonging, New England Conservatory of Music
James Mason, Associate Provost, Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Moderator
Shaya Gregory Poku, Vice President for Equity and Social Justice, Emerson College

Current Event Resources

National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE)
The National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) is the preeminent voice for chief diversity officers. Ultimately, it investigates, influences, and innovates to transform higher education so inclusive excellence thrives at the core of each institution worldwide. Currently, it is one of the lead plantiffs in a federal lawsuit against the Trump Administistration challenging the reckless and unconstitutional executive orders signed by President Trump shortly after taking office that seek to dismantle the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility within the fabric of our federal government and beyond.
DEI Legislation Tracker
The Chronicle is tracking legislation that would prohibit colleges from having diversity, equity, and inclusion offices or staff; ban mandatory diversity training; forbid institutions to use diversity statements in hiring and promotion; or bar colleges from considering race, sex, ethnicity, or national origin in admissions or employment.

ReVisioning History

These resources were recommended by presenter Monique Van Willingh, who encouraged attendees to read these books to better understand how to refocus traditional academic presentations of history.

A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski
Winner of a 2012 Stonewall Book Award in nonfiction. A Queer History of the United States is groundbreaking and accessible. It looks at how American culture has shaped the LGBT, or queer, experience, while simultaneously arguing that LGBT people not only shaped but were pivotal in creating our country. Using numerous primary documents and literature, as well as social histories, Bronski's book takes the reader through the centuries--from Columbus' arrival and the brutal treatment the Native peoples received, through the American Revolution's radical challenging of sex and gender roles--to the violent, and liberating, 19th century--and the transformative social justice movements of the 20th.
A Disability History of the United States by Kim E. Nielsen
Covering the entirety of US history from pre-1492 to the present, A Disability History of the United States is the first book to place the experiences of people with disabilities at the center of the American narrative. In many ways, it's a familiar telling. In other ways, however, it is a radical repositioning of US history. By doing so, the book casts new light on familiar stories, such as slavery and immigration, while breaking ground about the ties between nativism and oralism in the late nineteenth century and the role of ableism in the development of democracy. A Disability History of the United States pulls from primary-source documents and social histories to retell American history through the eyes, words, and impressions of the people who lived it. Engrossing and profound, A Disability History of the United States fundamentally reinterprets how we view our nation's past- from a stifling master narrative to a shared history that encompasses us all.
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally-recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States is an essential resource providing historical threads that are crucial for understanding the present. Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples' history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.
An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz
Spanning more than two hundred years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history, arguing that the "Global South" was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Incisive and timely, this bottom-up history, told from the interconnected vantage points of Latinx and African Americans, reveals the radically different ways that people of the diaspora have addressed issues still plaguing the United States today, and it offers a way forward in the continued struggle for universal civil rights.
A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry; Kali Nicole Gross
An empowering and intersectional history that centers the stories of African American women across 400+ years, showing how they are-and have always been-instrumental in shaping our country. Berry and Gross prioritize many voices- enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law. The result is a starting point for exploring Black women's history and a testament to the beauty, richness, rhythm, tragedy, heartbreak, rage, and enduring love that abounds in the spirit of Black women in communities throughout the nation.
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays
The first intersectional history of the Black and Native American struggle for freedom in our country that also reframes our understanding of who was Indigenous in early America. Beginning with pre-Revolutionary America and moving into the movement for Black lives and contemporary Indigenous activism, Afro-Indigenous historian Kyle T. Mays argues that the foundations of the US are rooted in antiblackness and settler colonialism, and that these parallel oppressions continue into the present. Mays compels us to rethink both our history as well as contemporary debates and to imagine the powerful possibilities of Afro-Indigenous solidarity.
Asian American Histories of the United States by Catherine Ceniza Choy
Original and expansive, Asian American Histories of the United States is a nearly 200-year history of Asian migration, labor, and community formation in the US. Reckoning with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in anti-Asian hate and violence, award-winning historian Catherine Ceniza Choy presents an urgent social history of the fastest growing group of Americans. Choy traces how anti-Asian violence and its intersection with misogyny and other forms of hatred, the erasure of Asian American experiences and contributions, and Asian American resistance to what has been omitted are prominent themes in Asian American history.

Further Research

Reparative Universities by Ariana González Stokas
A timely investigation of why diversity alone is insufficient in higher education and how universities can use reparative actions to become anti-racist institutions.
Intersectionality and Higher Education by W. Carson Byrd, Rachelle J. Brunn-Bevel, and Sarah M. Ovink (Editors)
Though colleges and universities are arguably paying more attention to diversity and inclusion than ever before, to what extent do their efforts result in more socially just campuses? This book examines how race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, and other identities connect to produce intersected campus experiences.

Teach-in on Race 2025

Description

Session 4:   DEI in Academia: What it is, What it isn't, and How to Move Forward

Current Event Resources

ReVisioning History

Further Research

Session 4: DEI in Academia: What it is, What it isn't, and How to Move Forward