DEI in Academia with Komi German (Podcast Episode 1)

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Komi German about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies in academia and related issues. Komi is a Research Fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Freedom (FIRE). Komi recently completed her Ph. D. in psychology at UC Riverside with a dissertation entitled, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies in Academia: The Faculty’s Response.” Komi’s dissertation reviews the history of DEI in academia and reports the results of her surveys of UC Riverside professors about their views on DEI initiatives. In this podcast, we will cover issues like exclusion, censorship, authoritarianism, freedom of speech, implicit bias, cynicism, dogmatism, diversity statements, privilege, nobility, and the relevance of Friedrich Nietzsche and Charles Darwin to the Ivory Tower.

References and Links Mentioned in Episode

AAUP

American Association of University Professors. (1915). “Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure.”

(e.g., “The teacher ought also to be especially on his guard against taking unfair advantage of the student’s immaturity by indoctrinating him with the teacher’s own opinions before the student has had an opportunity fairly to examine other opinions upon the matters in question, and before he has sufficient knowledge and ripeness of judgment to be entitled to for many definitive opinion of his own…It is better for students to think about heresies than not to think at all; better for them to climb new trails, and stumble over error if need be…” pp. 298-299)

American Association of University Professors (AAUP). (1940). “Statement on Principles of Academic Freedom and Tenure.”

(e.g., “College and university teachers are citizens, members of a learned profession, and officers of an educational institution. When they speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline…”)

Brint, S and German, K. (2020) The University of California Drifts toward Conformism. New Discourses.

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

German, K (2020) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies in Academia: The Faculty’s Response. UC Riverside Dissertation.

German, K.T. & Stevens, S.T. (2021). Scholars under fire: The targeting of scholars for ideological reasons from 2015 to present. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Gilbert, OM (2015) Histocompatibility as adaptive response to discriminatory within-organism conflict: A historical model. The American Naturalist 185.2: 228-242.

(Theory on kin recognition that OG mentioned)

Gilbert, OM. “Natural reward drives the advancement of life.” Rethinking Ecology 5 (2020): 1.

(Paper giving brief outline of theory of natural reward)

Woodward Report or Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression at Yale (1974)

(Monumental document on Freedom of Expression)