Disrupting Diversity Discourses: Moving from Celebrations to Social Change through Affect

• In Event: Disruption and Eros in Higher Education: Precarity in Institutional Change

Abstract

Diversity has become a ubiquitous buzzword that substitutes “happy talk” for social change that allows people to engage in conversations about diversity that do not call into question their own power, privilege, and contributions to hegemonic systems. Diversity becomes a stand-in that allows universities to proclaim a commitment to change without actually creating social justice. This paper explores the ways that diversity is used by universities by offering a particular kind of affect that is institutionalized and shaped by neoliberal policies. The analysis includes suggestions for ways to disrupt the happy talk through counter-affects and narratives of change.

Presenter

• Erika Dee Brooks-Hurst, Texas Tech University