An Inclusive Academy: Achieving Diversity and Excellence

by Abigail J. Stewart, Virginia Valian

How colleges and universities can live up to their ideals of diversity, and why inclusivity and excellence go hand in hand.Most colleges and universities embrace the ideals of diversity and inclusion, but many fall short, especially in the hiring, retention, and advancement of faculty who would more fully represent our diverse world—in particular women and people of color. In this book, Abigail Stewart and Virginia Valian argue that diversity and excellence go hand in hand and provide guidance for achieving both.

Stewart and Valian, themselves senior academics, support their argument with comprehensive data from a range of disciplines. They show why merit is often overlooked; they offer statistics and examples of individual experiences of exclusion, such as being left out of crucial meetings; and they outline institutional practices that keep exclusion invisible, including reliance on proxies for excellence, such as prestige, that disadvantage outstanding candidates who are not members of the white male majority.

Perhaps most important, Stewart and Valian provide practical advice for overcoming obstacles to inclusion. This advice is based on their experiences at their own universities, their consultations with faculty and administrators at many other institutions, and data on institutional change. Stewart and Valian offer recommendations for changing structures and practices so that people become successful in ways that benefit everyone. They describe better ways of searching for job candidates; evaluating candidates for hiring, tenure, and promotion; helping faculty succeed; and broadening rewards and recognition.

Genres: Academia

502 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 17, 2018

Reviews

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely narrowly focused, by choice. There is no conversation about justice or equity. The goal is simply to hire "the best faculty" and the book provides evidence that cognitive bias prevents academic institutions from actually recruiting, hiring, retaining "the best faculty."

Choosing to make this argument is quite tactical.

This is a book that will speak to a broad set of people who may or may not care about racial justice or gender equity or disability and access. It will get them to -- out of self interest in hiring "the best" -- to make practical changes in hiring practices which will ultimately lead to more diverse hires.

This book will not change hearts or minds about justice and equity. I'm okay with this, because the arguments in this book are a pragmatic strategy to get the desired outcomes (a more diverse faculty).

[Hubert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview, primarily a discussion of ways in which implicit bias, schema (our understanding of how members of a given social group or category behave), influence our decision making, and thus influences our evaluations of members of that social group. As one can imagine this can have significant effects on how academic institutions are organized and run.

The text maintains 2 rhetorical strategies: summarizing key studies, and providing recommendations for better governance that would lead to better outcomes within academia.

The authors also spend significant amounts of time discussing the role of prestige and its effects on how universities recruit, hire, mentor, and promote their faculty.

A worthy read and reread, if at times a tad overwritten.