The University Center for Human Values is committed to enhancing and valuing a diversity of perspectives and experiences. The Center seeks to be an inclusive academic community, and strongly encourages participation from individuals who identify as members of groups that are underrepresented in their respective discipline. 

The values of equity, diversity, and inclusion inform the Center’s operation and programming at a number of levels. The Center continues to explore opportunities to interrogate and cultivate these values. Below are a few examples of recent and ongoing efforts.

For 2023-24, the Center’s designated research theme for Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellows is “Reckoning with Race.” This theme will support research that analyzes the category of race in both local and global contexts and in different periods of history, as well as research that investigates intersections of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity. The UCHV Executive Committee expects that approximately half the fellows in each yearly cohort will pursue projects related to the theme; applications unrelated to the theme are equally welcome and encouraged.  

Since 2022, the Center has partnered with Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion Shawn Maxam to conduct focus groups and distribute a climate survey to better understand and support the Center’s community. We have also worked with the Office of the Provost to implement best practices for our search processes. 

In the summer of 2021, the Director of the UCHV, Melissa Lane, formed an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee. The committee, currently chaired by Professor Edward Baring, is actively developing proposals for encouraging greater intellectual and demographic diversity within the Center, and continues to seek opportunities to collaborate with new departments in order to bring a greater diversity of voices to the Center’s intellectual community.  

Since 2014, Center faculty member Elizabeth Harman has been a co-director of Athena in Action, a networking and mentoring workshop for graduate student women in philosophy.

Discussions of equity, diversity, and inclusion also occur regularly across the Center’s events and ongoing talk series. For instance, recent talks through the Ira W. DeCamp Bioethics Seminars have addressed discriminatory social attitudes and discursive injustice and race in the context of population genetics; the 2023 James A. Moffett '29 Lectures in Ethics explored historical injustice; and a recent event of the Program in Ethics and Public Affairs interrogated Black rebellion and policing. For information about upcoming events, please navigate to the “Events” tab.

UCHV has an open door policy for discussing concerns, questions, or suggestions related to equity, diversity, and inclusion. If you would like to speak about these matters with the Center Director (Alan Patten) or the Chair of the EDI committee (Edward Baring), please contact Derek Balcom to schedule a meeting.