Talking about Conditions That Suggest Diversity Can Mean Excellence

Gender equity is often addressed to improve institutional diversity and excellence. However, having a woman (or anyone with an underrepresented or minoritized identity or intersection of multiple identities) at the table does not automatically lead to innovation and excellence at our institution. There is a condition for this: letting the diverse perspectives of those around us be shared, respected, and reflected. To this end, it is worthwhile to unpack what we mean by diverse perspectives and how these views can be communicated and appreciated more widely.

There are varying explanations for why diversity is important for institutional excellence. Today, we will focus on the concept of diversity in two ways—ontological and epistemological diversities— to explore how these diversities can make scholarship and practices even richer and more innovative at IUB.

Ontological diversity

Ontology is about the objective of inquiry.1  The choice of the objective is shaped by what we think exists and what we see as reality.2 Where gender and race are concerned, there is no definitive and singular reality. This is because our individual and collective identities  and experiences  make us have different  realities. For example, the Human Rights Council under the Council of Europe published a report titled Sexism: See it. Name it. Stop it. The title explicitly connotes that many men do not think sexism exists at their workplace. Even if they note some instances of it, and see some of it, they are likely to see only the surface of what sexism entails. The picture of the iceberg below describes  how men may notice the overt form of biases and assaults against women at work. Yet, only  women perceive many more forms of biases and exclusions.  

  Image source: Picture A Scientist  

This means that women and women of color have differing purviews of objective of inquiry because their realities are different from men's. For instance, in Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O’Neil pinpoints that mathematics is run by predominantly white men and criticizes their skewed focus on developing big data algorithms that benefit corporations and the privileged demographic populations more and more systemically. Towards the end of the book, she urges diversity in the demographics of mathematicians because determining the nature and objective of algorithms is greatly influenced by how one defines reality. Corroborating O’Neil’s argument on the imperative of diversity, Talitha Washington, a professor of mathematics, stands out for her use of data science to address social justice for Black communities. Similarly, other women in science may find the interrogation of the intersectionality of sexism and racism through science to be the most pressing matter of inquiry because intersectional discrimination exists in their realities, exerting a significant influence on their lives. In sum, encouraging diverse perspectives entails inviting women and women of color to share their unique “perception[s] of what is important, legitimate, and reasonable, and thus, unquestioned.” 

In addition, the ontology of a field of scholarship determines what education in the respective field(s)should be about. When a particular ontology is imposed through the course of education, it can alienate students with different objectives of studying. For instance, students of color often struggle with and even leave science due to the dissonance in ontologies of STEM education. In a study by Seymour and Hewitt, students of color in STEM describe their unmatched feelings:  

“A big concern of many black students is we feel like we’re being prepared to go into white corporate America, and it won’t really help our community—we won’t have the opportunity through our careers to give back to the community. Anything we do for the community would be outside our academic field, and that’s a very serious concern.” 

Students of color in STEM set serving the community as the objective of their studies while students in postsecondary STEM education does not. This example indicates the incongruence between the science we know and a science that deeply reflects a diverse set of individual and collective identities. Therefore, sharing diverse perspectives means inviting women and women of color to state what matters to them openly, rather than excluding them, including them more for optics than substance (“tokenizing”), minimizing their perspectives, or even shutting them down as irrelevant or illegitimate.

Epistemological diversity

Epistemology is a study of knowledge and asks the question, “How do we know what we know?” It concerns the methodology of knowledge. We also decide the scope of what we can and cannot capture. Sandra Harding points out that traditional epistemological theories exclude and do not explain women's lives because the methodology is not designed that way. Historically, questions about women were answered predominantly by men, not for the sake of women, but rather to control women.3  Centering women's voices was not the priority; thus, their voices were neither captured nor theorized regularly. Sometimes, no language is available to even conceptualize oppression against women. As a result, academics who are not man- or white-identifying –women and individuals with marginalized identities—are likely to pursue non-traditional methods to capture the traditionally unheard voices. Such methodologies also do two things:  1)  they often embody a nature of facets of activism to facilitate dialogues among the participants to recognize the similar pattern of discrimination against them4, and 2)  they often support marginalized women in developing a collective consciousness of oppression and advocating for themselves.5  Individuals with marginalized backgrounds have extended their efforts to establish innovative methodologies. One methodology invented to center the marginalized includes photovoice, which uses narrative photography and asks the participants to take images and explain why they represent what matters to them.6  The quantitative critical method (QuantCrit) was also initiated to challenge the drawback of traditional quantitative methodologies in dealing with small sample-sized groups (i.e. racially minoritized groups often represent a small portion of the data, and these groups are treated with methods that are contingent on the sample size and may inaccurately capture their experiences).7 QuantCrit applies the tenets of Critical Race Theory and proposes quantitative methodologies to equitably capture and construct knowledge through the experiences of the marginalized.8  

A further consideration is that the women and women of color’s ontological and epistemological perspectives are often not credited appropriately and, thus, not shared widely. This limits the impact of their work. There are countless examples of women and women of color who were denied tenure because their scholarship was not deemed “excellent” enough or suitable for their disciplines (which, of course, is judged relative to a “traditional” perspective).9  Laudres Torre explicates her view that the academic biases in ontologies and epistemologies are real via the example of DePaul University: “almost all of the faculty denied tenure were white women and women of color.” Taken together, we see a picture of higher education institutions attempting to diversify the demographics of their members, yet not taking the forward-looking steps necessary to manifest ontological and epistemological diversities in their academic cultures.

Action Tips for Allies

  • Look out for masking language: Dr. Suzanne Wertheim’s recent article explores the behavior of masking language. By using phrases like “let’s keep things professional” or “that is not scientific/rigorous enough,” or “that’s not the type of research we do in this department,” we shut down the diverse ways of seeing the world and finding truth(s). Consider how the comment could be an expression of bias against someone who does not look or act like the existing team. In addition, if you witness “masking language,” push back because there are multiple definitions of professionalism and how science should be done. If your department interviews for professionalism or measures professionalism as part of employee performance, look closely at how this is done. If you are measuring against a standard of whiteness and Western culture, it is time to revisit your definition. 

  • Encourage women and women of color to “go for it” and provide support to make it happen:  Their ideas and approaches may be unconventional in the eyes of dominant groups. Listen actively to how they have arrived at the ideas and offer support and network to make their ideas flourish as innovations.  

  • Share and circulate the accomplishments of women and women of color:  Ontological and epistemological understandings of diversity can often lead to findings that traditional scholarship could not have observed. This is how diverse perspectives generate innovation and excellence. Share their breakthrough findings and contributions proactively within your department and your network.

See our Archived Ally Tips

Learn more about Advocates and Allies for Equity

Weekly Resources

  • Book: Written/Unwritten: Diversity and the Hidden Truths of Tenure – The author invites faculty of color with impressive publication and teaching records, but who experienced tenure denial and discrimination against their academic performance, to describe the nature of discriminations in academia.  

  • Book: Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women –Brittny Cooper, a Black female professor of Women and Gender Studies, explicates the lineage of Black female thinkers in the U.S. and emphasizes that we research and include Black women’s intellectual work not because they are not shown to be respectable, but because they have dignity. The inclusion of their perspectives of realities and ways of knowing are championed as ways to uphold dignity for all beings.  

  • Podcast: Women in STEM – The host invites various women scholars in STEM and asks them how they pursue STEM differently.  

     

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