Thread: An understated trend in higher ed is the influx of faculty jobs that focus on race, gender, identity, and critical theory. These have become the hottest areas, the specialties most likely to land a job.
Here are a few from the first page of the MLA's job board.
Duke University is hiring two literature professors.
Ideal fields include critical race and ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies, decoloniality and post-colonial theory.
Priority given to candidates in Latinx studies.
UC Davis Department of English is hiring a professor of Chicanx/Latinx literature.
Specializations: "Indigenous literary and cultural studies," "disability studies," "gender and sexuality studies," "environmental humanities."
Fairfield University's English Department is hiring in 20th and 21st Century Postcolonial Literature in English.
The job listing encourages a secondary focus on "anti/post/decolonialism" and "critical theory."
Wake Forest University, Spanish.
The department is "particularly interested in candidates whose critical perspectives are linked to the experiences of groups historically underrepresented in higher education in ways that inform and influence their pedagogical approach."
Dartmouth is hiring a professor of Native American Literature and Indigenous Studies.
Secondary fields: "women’s, gender and sexuality studies," "critical race theory," "queer theory," etc.
Again, these are just from the first page of a languages job board, basically a random sample, and yet a majority focus on identity, with ideologically-coded language.
Toronto, Assistant Professor, Inter-Asia Gender and Sexuality.
(See highlighted text.)
"The English Department at Southwestern University invites applications for a tenure-track position in Latino/a/x-Chicano/a/x literature and culture."
Colgate University, Assistant Professor of German.
"We are particularly interested in candidates with interests in environmental humanities, gender studies, art and aesthetics, or transnational/multiethnic and colonial/postcolonial cultures in German-speaking contexts."
Williams, Assistant Professor of German.
The department has "a particular interest in candidates who work in the areas of migration, race and anti-racism, post- and decolonial approaches, disability, and/or memory studies."
Of course, scholars should be able to study race and gender. Universities shouldn't ban scholars from focusing on critical race theory.
But when a majority of a random sampling of jobs are like these, it starts to resemble a political agenda.
Ohio State, Latinx Folklore.
Also Ohio State:
On top of that, of course, most of these roles require diversity statements.
At Bates College, candidates for a role in Japanese Language and Asian Studies must submit a statement on how their work advances "equity, inclusion, access, antiracism, and educational justice."
But for many roles, the whole job application is functionally a diversity statement. Like this position at St. Olaf College in African American Studies, which calls for a focus on "Black Feminisms."
This is only the beginning. Universities now regularly emphasize that they want to hire more people in these areas, in an effort to increase demographic diversity.
This kind of push influences every area of higher education.
Graduate students: to get a good job, emphasize race and gender.
English and German classes: taught by a scholar who focuses on race and gender, focuses on race and gender.
Faculty research: focuses on race and gender, and rewarded for that focus.
THREAD: Ben Sasse is resigning from the Senate to become president of the University of Florida. This is a huge opportunity for higher education reform. I have every reason to think that Senator Sasse is concerned about threats to academic freedom and sound university policy.
If that's the case, his first act should be to follow the advice of @NASorg, @TheFIREorg, @AFA_Alliance, and thousands of professors across the nation—and end the use of diversity statements for hiring, promotion, and tenure.
@NASorg@TheFIREorg@AFA_Alliance Given that I'm talking about the University of *Florida*, it might be surprising that I even have to bring up the policy.
But—and at this point, it's actually no surprise at all—diversity statements are a common requirement for a vast array of disciplines at UF.
Sasse can probably do a lot more as a university president than he can as a senator. And kudos to him. The job is hard and relatively thankless. The question is, will he tackle any of the real problems facing universities?
It's guaranteed that he'll end up at a university that requires diversity statements.
E.g. Nebraska-Lincoln, which requires diversity statements not only for DEI-related roles like "Race and Rhetoric," but also "Cognitive Psychology" and "Computational Systems Biology."
The UNL Department of Engineering even posts this nifty rubric for evaluating diversity statements, which pretty obviously borrows from the Gold Standard of DEI rubrics (UC Berkeley's).
This is the first in a new series of webinars titled "Right Ideas," which will explore figures relevant to the contemporary American right. Recently, the work of James Burnham has had something of a revival, which makes it a natural starting point.
Our panelists, to quote @RpwWilliams, are "three of the best thinkers on the Right." @JuliusKrein is the editor of American Affairs. @ToryAnarchist is the editor of Modern Age. @aaron_renn is senior fellow at American Reformer. They each have interesting insights into Burnham.
THREAD: Ohio State University recently released the report from its "Task Force on Racism and Racial Inequities," which recommends far-reaching changes throughout the university.
Those changes will very likely be adopted. In fact, many are already happening at OSU.
The report's first "Grand Challenge and Priority Action Step" is to create a university-wide DEI plan.
It also to charges all colleges to create their own yearly "cultural transformation plans."
Other steps include a curriculum overhaul (include courses that address DEI topics as prerequisites) and increased mandatory DEI training throughout the university.
Also, as has become so common, adding DEI metrics to promotion and tenure evaluations.
NEW: The University of Tennessee has required every school and administrative unit to produce a “Diversity Action Plan,” effectively mandating the creation of hundreds of DEI policies at every level of the university.
We have acquired those plans.
Thread:
A few notable features.
The plans ensure a wide-scale curriculum overhaul throughout the university.
In the College of Social Work, this means integrating “anti-racism and social justice content into the curricula,” including through a new “social justice minor.”
At the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, “all departmental instructors will apply DEI skill sets and dispositions in their own curriculum.”
Also, a “minimum of 75% of all instructors will revise one course syllabus annually to reflect increased self-knowledge.”
At the school of public health: “stronger statements will include a range of examples of how you have incorporated equity into your work experience to date.”
At the school of pharmacy: describe “how you will contribute to an inclusive environment.”
For candidates applying to the Department of Health Policy and Management, "Stronger statements will include a range of examples of how you have incorporated equity into your research, teaching and/or service."
An "equity advocate" will be present throughout the hiring process.