Disciplining Diversity
Mariam Lam
Comparative Literature and Ethnic Studies
UC Riverside
Participants
Kendra Calhoun
Linguistics
UC Santa Barbara
Sherri Lynn Conklin
Philosophy
UC Santa Barbara
Óscar Fernández
University Studies
Portland State University
Anirban Gupta-Nigam
Visual Studies
UCHRI
Nigel Hatton
Literature and Philosophy
UC Merced
Anneeth Kaur Hundle
Anthropology, Sikh Studies
UC Irvine
Ananda Marin
Education and Information Studies, American Indian Studies Interdepartmental Program
UC Los Angeles
Wendy Matsumura
History
UC San Diego
Olivia Quintanilla
Ethnic Studies
UC San Diego
The Disciplining Diversity RRG will address the investments—financial, institutional, psychic—that frame diversity as a panacea against exclusion while, at the same time, forcing diversity-work onto the backs of those recognized as diverse. What meanings accrue to a term like “diversity” at a moment when the United States is poised to become a nonwhite majority nation by 2050? How has diversity policy supplanted other (and in some accounts, more political) technologies of intervening in social space such as affirmative action? Who are recruited as the faces of institutional diversity and what alibis do such recruitments offer those who can simply shrug off their responsibility because, in theory, the university is doing its job? In addition to such critical questions, this RRG will also inquire into the mechanics by which universities can effectively accommodate heterogeneity not as a talking point but as a part of the fabric of institutional life.
