The Science of Equity

• In Event: “Antiracist Science”: Interrogating Knowledge Production, Interrupting Racism

Abstract

In her paper, “The Science of Equity,” Nicole Ivy purses questions around the codification of knowledge of diversity and inclusion (D&I). The professionalization of D&I has given rise to an industry of knowledge production that includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Metrics-based approaches and emphases on “debiasing” are often couples with survey instruments like the Harvard University Implicit Association Test and the Global Diversity and Inclusion Benchmarks. Rather than promoting one measure or approach over another, Ivy historicizes the knowability of D&I in order to interrogate the formation of these metrics as curricular objects. She argues that D&I can be located within a discourse of risk analysis that often subordinates transformation and harm reduction to (impression) management. Following the work of Chanda Prescod-Weinstein on implicit bias research, Ivy queries both the authority of scientism and the anecdotal valuation of the lived experience of marginalization in D&I assessments. Indeed, just as Prescod-Weinstein makes an incisive critical reading of the limitations of "the cognitive psychologist as an authoritative observer of bias,” Ivy approaches an examination of the very positions of observer and subject in D&I research.

Author

• Nicole Ivy, The George Washington University