Gender, Race and Philosophy: The Blog

Summer Immersion Program in Philosophy at Brown University 2016

The Brown Philosophy Department is now accepting applications for the Summer Immersion Program in Philosophy at Brown University.

[email protected] is a two-week undergraduate program for members of groups that are underrepresented in philosophy departments, including women and students of color. The 2016 program will run from July 17 to July 30 and will feature seminars taught by Brown faculty and the [email protected] research conference. Each student will receive free lodging on Brown's campus, a $500 stipend, and reimbursement of up to $500 of travel expenses.

To learn more about the program and the application procedure, visit www.sippatbrown.com. The application deadline is March 15. Questions about [email protected] or about the application process should be sent to [email protected]

Double Jeopardy - A report on women of color in science

Joan Williams (UC Hastings), Katherine Phillips (Columbia), and Erika Hall (Emory) have produced a report on women of color in science called "Double Jeopardy." 

"We interviewed sixty scientists who were all women of color. Women of color face “double jeopardy” because they encounter race as well as gender bias (Epstein, 1973; Almquist, 1975). This study explores how the experience of gender bias differs by race. We use the interviews of women of color in science and a survey that quantifies the experiences of White, Black, Asian-Americans, and Latina women in STEM fields to document the little-explored differences between the experiences of White women and women of color, and between different groups of women of color."

After a richly detailed report, they offer recommendations for change:

"This report concludes by introducing a new approach to organizational change to interrupt gender bias, called Metrics-Based Bias Interrupters (Williams, 2014). In contrast to traditional one-off bias trainings, and traditional sensitivity based organizational change initiatives, Bias Interrupters uses a four-step iterative process: 1) identify how gender bias is playing out, if at all, in basic business systems (recruiting, assignments, evaluations, etc.), 2) develop objective metrics to measure bias, 3) implement a bias interrupter to interrupt the bias, 4) see whether the relevant metric improves and, if it doesn’t, strengthen or modify the intervention. A compilation of Bias Interrupters is provided at the end of this report."

Thanks to Carla Fehr for the link.

Diversity in Philosophy: Call for Abstracts

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS/PANELS

for a conference on

DIVERSITY IN PHILOSOPHY

May 29-May 31, 2013

University of Dayton, Dayton, OH

 

This conference examines and addresses the underrepresentation of women and other marginalized groups in Philosophy. Participants will focus on hurdles and best practices associated with the inclusion of underrepresented groups. It will focus on such questions as:

• Why do white males continue to be over-represented among Philosophy majors, graduate students, and faculty members, especially given that most other fields in the sciences and humanities are increasingly diverse?
• What are some effective ways to improve the recruitment, retention and advancement of women and other underrepresented groups?
• What roles do implicit bias and stereotyping play in who advances in Philosophy?
• How can the climate for women and other marginalized groups be improved?
• What role can philosophers who study marginalized groups play in advancing underrepresented groups in Philosophy?
• What can Philosophy learn from National Science Foundation ADVANCE initiatives that address how to recruit and advance women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields?
• How can we improve the climate for all underrepresented groups in Philosophy, including those who are LGBTQ, disabled, first generation in college, or economically disadvantaged?

Goals of the conference include creating opportunities for networking and building supportive communities as well as sharing cutting edge research.

We invite papers arising from relevant research programs, or about insights arising from relevant professional experience, including research, service and teaching work.  We invite individual presentations of 20 minutes with 10 additional minutes of discussion, or panels consisting of three 15 minute presentations with a total of 15 additional minutes of discussion. You may submit abstracts of papers (200-300 words) or panels (up to 3 abstracts) below.  Only one submission per person.  Panels should only be submitted once.  To submit an abstract or panel, click on “Diversity in Philosophy Conference May 29-31, 2013” in the left sidebar at www.apaonlinecsw.org.

We encourage presenters to give accessible, engaging presentations.  All conferences rooms can accommodate PowerPoint.  Every effort will be made to accommodate participants with disabilities.

Submission Deadline: February 1, 2013

On June 1, 2013, immediately following the conference, there will be a workshop for training members of CSW-sponsored site visit teams. These site visits are designed to improve the climate for underrepresented groups in Philosophy departments.   For further information, please click on "Site Visit Program" in the left sidebar at www.apaonlinecsw.org.

Organizing Committee:
Peggy DesAutels, University of Dayton, Chair, APA Committee on the Status of Women
Carla Fehr, University of Waterloo
Sally Haslanger, MIT, Convener, Women in Philosophy Task Force

Sponsors:
American Philosophical Association
American Philosophical Association, Committee on Inclusiveness
American Philosophical Association, Committee on the Status of Women
American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division
University of Dayton, Office of the Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences
University of Dayton, Department of Philosophy
University of Dayton, Women's and Gender Studies Program
University of Dayton, Office of Alumni Chair in Humanities

Climate Survey Instrument

Ruth Chang offers this:

If anyone is looking for a template climate survey for their department, the University of Michigan has one for all departments, devised by social scientists who worked with graduate student focus groups. (Thanks to Abby Stewart for sharing this). Here it is.

People who have experience running these surveys strongly recommend that strict guidelines for anonymity and confidentiality should be advertised and followed. For example, if the survey is conducted electronically, online survey software should be used to collect survey answers rather than email; a non-departmental, neutral third party should be responsible for reviewing, summarizing, and anonymizing the raw data; none of the raw data should be viewed by anyone in the department; none of the raw data should ever be made public; if the graduate population is small or if there are only a small number of members of underrepresented groups, the survey should not ask them to declare their underrepresented status so that no respondent can be identified by gender, race, etc.