Faculty Affairs and Academic Programs
Diversifying Recruitment through Curricular Reform in the Arts
UC Santa Barbara, 2022-2023
Project Principal Investigators
Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Dean of the Division of Arts, UC Santa Cruz
Project Abstract
This UC Santa Cruz proposal promotes inclusive curricula and culture as the foundation for attracting diverse faculty from communities underrepresented in academia. In supporting curricular reforms that decenter epistemologies rooted in the West, whiteness, heteronormativity, patriarchy, and other exclusionary ideologies, the project signals that UCSC is an institution committed to structural transformation. Further, the recruitment plans highlight the value that the campus places on faculty engagement in service of its communities, in their research and creative works alike. Not only will such visible shifts draw a diverse pool of applicants, but they will also generate a faculty that will reshape the parameters of belonging while accelerating the metamorphosis of UCSC’s university culture. Finally, this proposal builds upon best practices established through the AFD program to ensure that DEI is foregrounded at every stage of our recruitments and that new faculty are provided the resources to flourish. The interventions proposed are scalable to disciplines beyond the arts.