to find strong candidates. Our experience building Washington University’s sociology department shows that these results are certainly possible. Here’s a glimpse at our playbook.
Following a national search for faculty who could become founding members of the new sociology department, I was hired in 2015 with two other colleagues who are white men. Early on in our first few months on the job, my coworkers and I explicitly prioritized building a racially diverse department. During that first year, I vividly remember sitting in department meetings as the lone woman and person of color and thinking, “This is the last year that department meetings look like this.
When it came time to begin our hiring cycle for the first round of assistant professors to interview for jobs, we made sure to advertise our open position in a broad range of locations. Since we knew that relying on social networks often candidates of color, we did not want to rely primarily on our alma maters or other networks where we would be likely to net a predominantly white applicant pool. Instead, we relied on professional associations that primarily included sociologists of color.
These are important steps to take when it comes to hiring, but that’s only part of the battle when it comes to racial diversity in the workplace. It’s also very important for people of color to be included, visible, heard, and represented in the everyday life of the department. This is where organizational culture matters a lot.
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