Committee for the Advocacy of Diversity & Inclusion

History

ASEEES’s Committee for the Advocacy of Diversity and Inclusion was created by a vote of the ASEEES Board in 2018 in response to the need for a standing committee within the organization that can coordinate and guide ASEEES’s efforts both to diversify and to make more inclusive its membership and the broader field of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

Membership

The Committee for the Advocacy of Diversity and Inclusion has 5 members, one of whom is a member of the ASEEES Board. The remaining 4 members of the Committee are chosen from the organization’s members and should represent the diversity of ASEEES’s overall membership and be willing to work actively to implement and uphold ASEEES’s “Statement on Diversity and Inclusion.” Members are nominated by the ASEEES President, approved by the Board, and serve a three-year term, which may be renewed. The Committee convenes annually at ASEEES’s annual convention, but its work is ongoing.

Charge

The Committee for the Advocacy of Diversity and Inclusion implements and upholds ASEEES’s “Statement on Diversity and Inclusion”:

As a scholarly organization, the Association of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) aims to promote diversity with the goal of fostering greater inclusion in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (SEEES) among our membership, in our teaching and scholarship, and in the organization’s own work. ASEEES is committed in both principle and action to treating everyone with dignity and respect regardless of race, age, physical appearance, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, citizenship status, social class, physical and sensory abilities, neurodiversity, academic or professional status, political perspective, and religion.

Membership in ASEEES is open to all who study and teach SEEES. To this end, ASEEES embraces all who wish to join, to participate, and to have a voice in the organization with the goal of promoting inclusion and broadening participation in SEEES. ASEEES believes that disenfranchisement of groups in any society undermines open and free human communication. Our commitment to diversity in SEEES recognizes the need for institutions to recruit intentionally and to hire members from groups that have been historically discriminated against or underrepresented in our field. We believe that more inclusive representation of diverse perspectives will enrich intellectual discourse in our field.

To implement and uphold the principles in this statement, the Committee for the Advocacy of Diversity and Inclusion does the following:

    • CADI assesses the state of diversity and inclusion in the field and the profession at large.
    • CADI promotes the inclusion of scholars of color and other students and scholars whose presence in the field is marginalized, less visible, or otherwise challenges racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination against people with disabilities in society and within SEEES.
    • CADI advances critical pedagogical strategies that address racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination against people with disabilities in society and within the field of SEEES.
    • CADI aims to support the recruitment, mentorship, and retention of diverse students and scholars in SEEES.
    • CADI aims to showcase the perspectives of diverse students and scholars in ASEEES’s programming.
    • CADI promotes diversity in the leadership of ASEEES.

To pursue these ends, the Committee for the Advocacy of Diversity and Inclusion works actively with ASEEES’s membership, other standing committees within the organization, and affiliate organizations and interest groups when appropriate.

Committee Members

ASEEES Staff Liaison: Kelly McGee, Deputy Director/Director of Membership

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