Unpacking Diversity Work: Understanding Conditional Hospitality in Faculty Hiring

• In Event: Navigating (Con)Tensions in the Academy

Abstract

This paper aims to conceptualize faculty hiring committee participants' descriptions of diversity work and its link to conditional hospitality (Ahmed, 2006, 2012). It goes beyond the focus on single diversity categories (e.g., race or gender) and examines the negotiation of candidates' social differences (e.g., sexuality, gender, and race) and credentials in determining entry into the professoriate. The significance lies in understanding the dynamic complexities of diversity work, shedding light on preconceptions preceding conditional hospitality. These empirical insights address questions about the use and conceptions of diversity and extend personal accounts of diversity in the faculty hiring literature. The aim is not to forgo diversity work but to explore how it is employed, given higher education's overwhelming circulation of diversity over equity.

Authors

• Naseeb Kaur Bhangal, Michigan State University

• Leslie D. Gonzales, University of Arizona

• Jesenia Rosales, Oregon State University

• Chastity Stokes, Georgetown University