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Here's a scoring guide from a US university for DEI statements. To me it's much more informative to go to primary sources for what is selected for, rather than

Here's a scoring guide from a US university for DEI statements. To me it's much more informative to go to primary sources for what is selected for, rather than only reading about them second hand. https://ofew.berkeley.edu/recruitment/contributions-diversity/rubric-assessing-candidate-contributions-diversity-equity https://ofew.berkeley.edu/recruitment/contributions-diversit...

bawolff 3y ago
Thanks,i agree its best to look at it directly. But i do wonder what lines like "Clearly formulates new ideas for advancing equity and inclusion at Berkeley and within their field, through their research,..." mean What does it mean for a math professor to advance diversity through their research? Like i could maybe get it for the arts or even some social sciences, but what does that look like for math?
- IanCal 3y ago
  Collaboration would be the most obvious answer to me for that.
  - ttyprintk 3y ago
    Note that collaboration is not mentioned in that rubric at all. It is very much judging an individual commitment to DEIB.
    - IanCal 3y ago
      Collaboration with external partners typically overlooked is an answer to advancing equity and inclusion within your field through your research. Actively seeking out and forming these relationships is something you are committing to doing individually.
- isotypic 3y ago
  The full quote is "Clearly formulates new ideas for advancing equity and inclusion at Berkeley and within their field, through their research, teaching, and/or service." The last two are naturally more relevant for fields where advancing DEI through the research itself isn't as feasible. The examples given in the rubric are all of teaching/service categories, as well.
- bigstrat2003 3y ago
  Not only that, but it presupposes that diversity is a good in and of itself, which I think is quite false when it comes to diversity of physical characteristics (which is all that these initiatives ever care about). Diversity is neutral. It is just as erroneous to think that a group is enhanced by adding people just for their race (or gender, etc) as it is to think that a group is enhanced by excluding people just for their race (etc).
  - baggy_trough 3y ago
    You aren’t going to get a job like that.
    - im3w1l 3y ago
      Well you could always turn to a life of crime if you want to keep your dignity. Only half joking.
  - therealdrag0 3y ago
    Some may presuppose that, others may suppose instead that physical diversity is a proxy indicator for other diversities of experience and culture. Sometimes proxies are good enough, other times they’re not.
- ttyprintk 3y ago
  It helps to think of the things _around_ math rather than the elements of any particular mathematical field. For example, the authority conveyed when an economics argument relies heavily on partial differential equations. Those things _around_ math are studied in the anti-racist math classes. The American Mathematical Society has been grappling with this: https://blogs.ams.org/inclusionexclusion/2020/01/31/can-mathematics-be-antiracist/ https://blogs.ams.org/inclusionexclusion/2020/01/31/can-math... Pure math is very different than social studies. But, in applied math, your research will be used for something promoting one group over another. Personally, I find it manipulative to attribute my own problem-solving contributions to the politics of someone using them.
- tmyklebu 3y ago
  Not research, but Jelani Nelson at Berkeley ran programmes in Ethiopia to expose schoolchildren to programming. (In case it needs to be said, Jelani is a top-shelf theoretical computer scientist.)
  - Jensson 3y ago
    Why should a STEM professor be required to devote time to such activities? It doesn't seem to be their specialty, humanity does better when we are allowed to specialize, other people can do such things.
    - baggy_trough 3y ago
      Because if they don’t, they might be the wrong sort of people.
    - tmyklebu 3y ago
      To try to argue it: Humanity does better when we don't marginalise people for dumb reasons such as membership in a visible minority group. Marginalising someone for a dumb reason is an individual decision, and it's a decision that a professor is frequently in a position to make. Arguably the higher-leverage parts of a professor's job are teaching classroomfuls students at once, advising graduate students, and "service," meaning things like sitting on committees within the university, attending and sometimes organising conferences, and so forth. These all involve the professor spending time to help others' careers. Owing to their leverage, it's especially important that these aspects are done well. And since candidates for tenure-track jobs generally haven't been in such a position of leverage before, it's especially important to screen for suitability for teaching and service when hiring tenure-track professors. I'm sure you can polish this, and I'm sure there are other arguments in the same direction. Regarding specialisation, I gave an example of a world-class researcher who also does outreach to an underrepresented group in the post you replied to. Moreover, the research, teaching, and service parts of a professor's job aren't as separable as you'd hope---the overarching purpose of it all is to keep a field of academic inquiry alive, where research, teaching, advising, and service all operate at different time scales. The field of a group of researchers who don't teach or advise students dies when they all die. A hypothetical teacher who isn't involved in research can't bring students near research-level work.
- koheripbal 3y ago
  > new ideas for advancing equity and inclusion It means providing research containing useful narratives that can be used by others to promote DEI political objectives. For example, in math it means publishing commentary on how math is widely used for racial discrimination and should generally not be trusted. See the popular book "Math Is Racist". Several Mathematicians are cited in the book.

bawolff 3y ago

Thanks,i agree its best to look at it directly. But i do wonder what lines like "Clearly formulates new ideas for advancing equity and inclusion at Berkeley and within their field, through their research,..." mean What does it mean for a math professor to advance diversity through their research? Like i could maybe get it for the arts or even some social sciences, but what does that look like for math?

IanCal 3y ago
Collaboration would be the most obvious answer to me for that.
- ttyprintk 3y ago
  Note that collaboration is not mentioned in that rubric at all. It is very much judging an individual commitment to DEIB.
  - IanCal 3y ago
    Collaboration with external partners typically overlooked is an answer to advancing equity and inclusion within your field through your research. Actively seeking out and forming these relationships is something you are committing to doing individually.
isotypic 3y ago
The full quote is "Clearly formulates new ideas for advancing equity and inclusion at Berkeley and within their field, through their research, teaching, and/or service." The last two are naturally more relevant for fields where advancing DEI through the research itself isn't as feasible. The examples given in the rubric are all of teaching/service categories, as well.
bigstrat2003 3y ago
Not only that, but it presupposes that diversity is a good in and of itself, which I think is quite false when it comes to diversity of physical characteristics (which is all that these initiatives ever care about). Diversity is neutral. It is just as erroneous to think that a group is enhanced by adding people just for their race (or gender, etc) as it is to think that a group is enhanced by excluding people just for their race (etc).
- baggy_trough 3y ago
  You aren’t going to get a job like that.
  - im3w1l 3y ago
    Well you could always turn to a life of crime if you want to keep your dignity. Only half joking.
- therealdrag0 3y ago
  Some may presuppose that, others may suppose instead that physical diversity is a proxy indicator for other diversities of experience and culture. Sometimes proxies are good enough, other times they’re not.
ttyprintk 3y ago
It helps to think of the things _around_ math rather than the elements of any particular mathematical field. For example, the authority conveyed when an economics argument relies heavily on partial differential equations. Those things _around_ math are studied in the anti-racist math classes. The American Mathematical Society has been grappling with this: https://blogs.ams.org/inclusionexclusion/2020/01/31/can-mathematics-be-antiracist/ https://blogs.ams.org/inclusionexclusion/2020/01/31/can-math... Pure math is very different than social studies. But, in applied math, your research will be used for something promoting one group over another. Personally, I find it manipulative to attribute my own problem-solving contributions to the politics of someone using them.
tmyklebu 3y ago
Not research, but Jelani Nelson at Berkeley ran programmes in Ethiopia to expose schoolchildren to programming. (In case it needs to be said, Jelani is a top-shelf theoretical computer scientist.)
- Jensson 3y ago
  Why should a STEM professor be required to devote time to such activities? It doesn't seem to be their specialty, humanity does better when we are allowed to specialize, other people can do such things.
  - baggy_trough 3y ago
    Because if they don’t, they might be the wrong sort of people.
  - tmyklebu 3y ago
    To try to argue it: Humanity does better when we don't marginalise people for dumb reasons such as membership in a visible minority group. Marginalising someone for a dumb reason is an individual decision, and it's a decision that a professor is frequently in a position to make. Arguably the higher-leverage parts of a professor's job are teaching classroomfuls students at once, advising graduate students, and "service," meaning things like sitting on committees within the university, attending and sometimes organising conferences, and so forth. These all involve the professor spending time to help others' careers. Owing to their leverage, it's especially important that these aspects are done well. And since candidates for tenure-track jobs generally haven't been in such a position of leverage before, it's especially important to screen for suitability for teaching and service when hiring tenure-track professors. I'm sure you can polish this, and I'm sure there are other arguments in the same direction. Regarding specialisation, I gave an example of a world-class researcher who also does outreach to an underrepresented group in the post you replied to. Moreover, the research, teaching, and service parts of a professor's job aren't as separable as you'd hope---the overarching purpose of it all is to keep a field of academic inquiry alive, where research, teaching, advising, and service all operate at different time scales. The field of a group of researchers who don't teach or advise students dies when they all die. A hypothetical teacher who isn't involved in research can't bring students near research-level work.
koheripbal 3y ago
> new ideas for advancing equity and inclusion It means providing research containing useful narratives that can be used by others to promote DEI political objectives. For example, in math it means publishing commentary on how math is widely used for racial discrimination and should generally not be trusted. See the popular book "Math Is Racist". Several Mathematicians are cited in the book.