The office of the Director of Equity and Inclusion in the Department of Political Science was created in 2015, prompted in part by a Report on the Status of Women Faculty in the Division of Social Sciences. The purpose of this office is to facilitate informed reflection by members of the Department, individually and collectively, about how our professional activities intersect with larger structures of social power, and to thereby to help the Department create and sustain the conditions under which each of us can pursue our work, as well as negotiate the competing requirements of professional and extra-professional life, free from the effects of illegitimate forms of inequality and privilege.
In 2015–2016, the initiatives of the Director of Equity and Inclusion included the creation of an expanding web library of resources and materials related to issues of equity and inclusion at Chicago, in Political Science, and in academia more broadly; the sponsorship of a series of discussions and presentations on a wide range of issues related to equity and inclusion, for graduate students and/or faculty, beginning in January 2016; and a study, with recommendations to the Department, of transparency and non-transparency in Department life, based on conversations with faculty and students about the extent to which they feel included in or excluded from information about activities, policies, and decisions that affect them.
Please use the links to the left to read a message from the former Director of Equity and Inclusion, Associate Professor Patchen Markell and to explore the Equity and Inclusion web library. This library includes a one-stop collection of links to a wide range of University of Chicago policies, reports, statements, offices, and resources, as well as a selection of further reading on issues related to equity, inclusion, social power, and the university, from blog posts to scholarly studies to news articles.
Linda Zerilli is the Equity and Inclusion Chair for 2020-21.