English 830: Teaching Composition Course Requirement — Your DEIB Statement

Your Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Statement

Paper Overview

Write a statement explaining how you approach issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in your courses:

• This is a standard document required on the job market
• If you already have a DEIB Statement, that’s great; this will be your chance to reread and revise that statement with a fresh eye
• This document is an important effort to think about how you try to support students to succeed in your classes
• In particular, a DEIB Statement is an effort to talk about what you value and how you want to work to offset inequity to whatever extent you can
• No DEIB Statement is perfect, but this is an important way to express solidarity to students and their diverse values
• Finally, in these fraught times of political division, having a public DEIB Statement is an important acknowledgment that, despite what some people may think, we have not yet eliminated racism or social injustice
• You are free to vote for whomever you like, but I hope writing a DEIB Statement helps you to think about how to make every student in your classes feel welcomed and supported

Paper Sources

• Your DEIB Statement may reference the names of 1-2 key scholars with whom you are aligned, but you do not need to include a works cited for this document

Paper Guidelines

• Your DEIB Statement should be 1 page in length
• Your DEIB Statement should be in a 12 point font
• DEIB Statements generally use block formatting where each paragraph is single-spaced, a blank line is inserted between paragraphs, and the entire document is flush left
• Your are welcome to use headings to help make your DEI Statement easier to read
• Even if you do not use headings, please use paragraph breaks to separate out your main ideas
• No matter your choices, you should strive to limit your DEI Statement to one page

Sample DEIB Statements

• Many departments now have a DEIB statement that helps explain part of their basic institutional values. Here are some good ones:
  • IUP Diversity Statement
  • Clark University (in Massachusetts) Department of English DEI Statement
  • University at Buffalo Department of English Statements
  • University of Washington Department of English Diversity, Equity, and Justice Statement
  • Yale University Department of English DEI Statement
• Dr. Pagnucci’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Statement (2024)–A more welcoming statement
  • Dr. Pagnucci’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Statement (2023)–An aggressive early statement
  • I want to stress that your statement does not have to match my statement, but I offer mine as one more example
• No DEIB Statement is perfect
  • It’s important to acknowledge that although institutions often adopt such statements, they do not solve all, or sometimes any, social justice problems
  • Nevertheless, at their best such statements do encourage people to consider what they value and to try to rethink their practices for the better
  • In addition, while some people may disregard the statements other people may be glad to hear those statements made
  • Such statements have become part of the academic terrain, so they carry weight broadly as an established institutional practice