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Diversity Statements

Though an increasing number of faculty search committees now ask candidates to submit diversity statements, guidance about how to compose an effective statement—indeed, even about what they are and why they can be valuable to institutions and candidates’ own professional development—remains scarce. You may think that diversity statements require you to locate diversity within your own social identities. You can, of course, note how your identities and life experiences motivate your commitment to diversity. However, beyond your motivation, universities and colleges want to know what you have accomplished in your career to this point and how you will contribute to their goal of making their institutions more inclusive and equitable. The most compelling diversity statements offer your definitions of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging (EDIB) and demonstrate how your research, teaching, and service actualize your EDIB goals.

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Download our "Composing Your Diversity Statement" worksheet

What is a Diversity Statement?

A diversity statement is a polished, narrative statement, typically 1–2 pages in length, that describes one's accomplishments, goals, and process to advance excellence in diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging as a teacher and a researcher in higher education.

The Building Blocks of a Diversity Statement

The following categories are core components of diversity statements. Effective diversity statements will address each of the following areas and answer some, if not all, of the associated questions.

Equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging (EDIB) are defined in multiple ways across and within institutions. The mission for this component of your statement is to define how you understand these terms and identify your EDIB priorities.

  • How do you define equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging (EDIB)?
  • What animates your approach to EDIB work in higher education?
  • How do the principles of EDIB relate to your values, approaches, and goals as a scholar and teacher?

> Download a copy of our "Composing Your Diversity Statement" worksheet

EDIB practices, in part, emerge from scholarship that researches the following: (1) the benefits and significance of diversity in higher education; (2) the obstacles and oppression that people who hold marginalized social identities face in higher education; (3) the processes for creating research and learning environments that benefit everyone. The mission for this component of your statement is to highlight your awareness of these conversations and show where your EDIB practices engage with them.

  • How do you regularly account for and address your privilege, bias, and EDIB learning edges?
  • Can you demonstrate knowledge of key EDIB terms (e.g., equality vs. equity; anti-Blackness; race vs. ethnicity; non-binary; DACA; neurodivergent and neurotypical)
  • Do you know how the following operate in the academy: implicit bias, different forms of privilege, (settler-)colonialism, systemic and interpersonal racism, homophobia, heteropatriarchy, and ableism? Can you identify how those factors currently and historically impact marginalized populations in your discipline?

> Download a copy of our "Composing Your Diversity Statement" worksheet

EDIB refers to values, goals, processes, assessments, and outcomes. The mission for this component of your diversity statement is to provide examples of your processes and assessments for attaining your EDIB goals in your research, teaching, and service.

Research

  • How does your research promote or advance equity and inclusion?
  • How does your research engage with and advance the well-being of socially marginalized communities?
  • How does your research acknowledge or interrogate power and privilege?
Example EDIB Value and Definition Inclusion: “Everyone is included, visible, heard, and considered”
Example of an Inclusive Research Goal Draft a book manuscript that is inclusive to the multiple voices within and beyond the discipline
Example of an Inclusive Research Process
  • Use Wendy Belcher’s Citation Values Form (or an alternative citation values form) to see how often you cite scholars of different genders, races, sexualities, abilities, languages, and religions, and revise manuscript according to your inclusive values
  • Use inclusive language throughout the manuscript
  • Write an introduction that welcomes readers within and beyond the discipline, explaining discipline-specific terms, values, and assumptions
  • Identify and attend professional development experiences that center the issue of inclusion in your discipline
Example of Inclusive Research Assessments
  • Form an inclusive writing group where you get regular and consistent feedback from group members
  • When possible present your work at conferences that center EDIB topics

Teaching

  • What strategies do you use to respond to the needs of students who are diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, age, nationality, sexual identity, ability, and religion?
  • How do you facilitate challenging conversations on race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, age, nationality, sexual identity, ability, and religion? What are the benefits and outcomes of your approach?
  • What EDIB theories and approaches do you draw from when teaching (e.g., critical inclusive pedagogy, anti-racist pedagogy, decolonial pedagogy, feminist pedagogy, universal design for learning, active learning)?
  • How do you account for the power dynamics in the classroom, including your own positionality and authority?
  • How do you design course assessments with EDIB in mind?
  • How have you solicited feedback about your EDIB pedagogy from students? What did you learn? How did you incorporate their feedback, and what were the outcomes?
Example EDIB Value and Definition Inclusion: “Everyone is included, visible, heard, and considered”
Example of an Inclusive Teaching Goal Create classes where students of all social identities can successfully learn and create knowledge
Example of an Inclusive Teaching Process
  • Integrate UDL aspects into your course
  • Clearly state learning goals and ways that students can meet those goals in the syllabus and in class discussions
  • Discuss course policies with students and allow them a chance to reflect on which aspects may feel more difficult to navigate. Make course adjustments based on their feedback.
  • Co-develop assignment rubrics and community norms with your student
Example of Inclusive Teaching Assessments
  • Solicit student feedback on course content and structure frequently throughout the course
  • Revisit community norms and revise as necessary

Service

  • How have you engaged in or led EDIB campus initiatives or programming? What did you accomplish? What did you learn? What skills or knowledge did you build in the process?
  • Have you engaged in or led other EDIB service beyond your institution? What did you accomplish? What did you learn? What skills or knowledge did you build in the process?
  • How has your past participation in EDIB service or activities prepared you to successfully take on your next position?
  • How do you measure the success of your EDIB work?
Example EDIB Value and Definition Inclusion: “Everyone is included, visible, heard, and considered”
Example of an Inclusive Service Goal Create an inclusive workshop series on hacking the discipline from the point of view of FGLI students

Example of Inclusive Service Process

  • Send out a campus-wide and a discipline-wide survey that solicits interest in and ideas for the workshop series
  • Include FGLI students on the planning committee
  • Include FG faculty on the planning committee
  • Make sure the planning committee represents a wide range of voices in terms of race, gender, sexuality, religion, and ability
  • Partner with the Accessible Education Office to plan ways to make the workshop space and materials accessible
Example of Inclusive Service Assessments
  • Solicit pre- and post-workshop feedback from participants
  • Solicit post-workshop feedback from planners on the process and outcomes

> Download a copy of our "Composing Your Diversity Statement" worksheet

Your diversity statement should not only showcase the EDIB work you have already accomplished but show how you integrate feedback and assess institutional needs to plan your future EDIB goals.

  • How do you plan to continue advancing inclusive excellence, diversity, or equity in your research, teaching, and service?
  • How do you solicit and respond to EDIB feedback from a range of academic communities?
  • How do your future EDIB goals align with your target institution's EDIB mission and needs?

> Download a copy of our "Composing Your Diversity Statement" worksheet

Some Final Tips and Advice

Some don’ts

  • Don’t (over)rely on self-disclosure. While you may choose to disclose the social identities you hold while narrating what motivates your commitment to EDIB work, your diversity statement should focus on the work you have done and will do to create diverse, inclusive, and equitable spaces of higher education. A diversity statement is about your commitment to furthering EDIB within the context of institutions of higher education, not about cataloguing everything virtuous you’ve ever done to prove that you’re an ally to a marginalized group. Also, never feel compelled to emotionally bleed for a search committee. Keep in mind that some diversity statement prompts may let you know what they prefer in terms of self-disclosure. For example, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s published guidelines to writing a diversity statement emphasize their desire for candidates who share the institution’s commitment to inclusive excellence, “regardless of personal demographic characteristics.”

  • Beware of false equivalencies. A personally challenging circumstance or series of events is not equivalent to holding a marginalized social identity throughout your lifetime. Similarly, the experiences of having one socially marginalized identity are not the same as the experiences of having a different marginalized social identity.

  • Don’t use “diversity” to refer to a BIPOC individual or a homogenous BIPOC community. Diversity does not mean a BIPOC individual or a homogenous BIPOC community. Diversity refers to the condition when individuals or communities from different backgrounds, cultures, frames of reference, social identities, or perspectives come together in a social context. It does not refer to a person (including yourself) or a homogenous community who experiences marginalization.

  • Don’t tailor every statement. Your diversity statement should demonstrate how you have and would effectively plan to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging across contexts, with clear EDIB objectives, expected outcomes, and forms of assessment. Your cover letter is the place for you to tailor your EDIB discussion, possibly referencing institutional contexts and departmental missions while describing specific initiatives you could plan and mentioning potential collaborations with centers and committees.

Some dos

  • Learn more about the EDIB challenges and goals of institutions. Before you draft your diversity statement, take time to research a range of websites from the institutional offices of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the universities, colleges, and departments to which you may apply. Note any recurring EDIB challenges and goals, and consider how your experiences and skills might address their needs and further their initiatives.

  • Show your process. Avoid only stating your belief in EDIB principles without showing methods for attaining your EDIB goals. Additionally, you can also demonstrate how your process reflects your EDIB principles. For example, if decolonizing your pedagogy is your EDIB goal, your process to achieve this may be to revise the readings on your syllabus to include voices outside of the traditional canon. To make the process align with your decolonial approach, you might solicit feedback from students on the readings and curriculum rather than unilaterally selecting the required readings yourself.

  • State your outcomes and lessons learned. The strongest diversity statements show what you accomplished with your initiatives and how you learned from feedback. Be mindful to state any skills or knowledge you acquired.

  • Connect your EDIB practices with evidence. Evidencing the effectiveness of your EDIB practices can come from your own assessments and can also be bolstered by the research of scholars who have qualitatively or quantitatively assessed the EDIB practices you utilize.