Diversity Committee Luncheon

Friday, Oct 12, 2018 – Toronto

1. New leadership?
   1. What should the term of service be for the Chair and Vice Chair?
   2. What should the selection procedure be for future Chairs and Vice Chairs?
   3. Should there be a graduate representative, and how ought they be selected?

 

2. Reminder: the curriculum proposal grant is over, and we should think about new proposals for funded projects.

 

3. Subcommittee report on the Mentorship Project (Emine Hande Tuna et al)

 

4. Subcommittee report on the Diversity Cohort Project (Charles Peterson et al)

 

5. Subcommittee report on the Outreach to Other Diversity Organizations Project (Saul Fisher et al)

 

6. Subcommittee report on Diversity Data Gathering Project (Nils-Hennes Stears et al)

 

7. Comments from JAAC (Ted Graczyk)

 

8. Ideas for Diversity Panel for the next ASA?

 

9. Open question: ideas for increasing diversity of publication and graduate students

 

10. Open discussion of recent events in the ASA

 

11. Q&A at Danto?

 

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American Society for Aesthetics

Diversity Mentoring Program

Proposal

 

Description

The ASA Diversity Mentoring Program is a network of small groups of faculty and graduate students that meet over a 12 month period on a monthly basis, in order to share experiences and receive feedback on the issues that are pertinent to their professional lives.

Purpose

The ASA Diversity Mentoring Program is an effort to create systems of professional support for junior members in the field of aesthetics, from graduate students to tenure-track faculty, who belong to historically marginalized groups. Mentoring is an important aspect to success within the academy. However, junior members of the profession do not consistently receive adequate mentoring within and without their academic homes. The ASA Diversity Mentoring Program aims to address this lacuna.

Process

Each group will consist of 4-5 members at different career stages. Each group will meet a minimum of once a month via teleconference in which each junior member of the group will describe an ongoing concern, question, or issue relevant to their professional lives. The senior member will facilitate discussion among the group members as every member will give feedback to each junior member’s concerns. Time limits will be strictly observed to ensure equity for each member to speak and be heard. The topic of each session can be pre-specified or drawn from urgent concerns of members.

Here is an example schedule of a meeting:

• Each session will open with a 10 minute opening description, by the senior member, of the monthly topic.
• Each junior member will take 10 minutes to describe their concern, question, or issue, and other group members will take 5 minutes to provide feedback.
• Each session closes with 5-10 minutes wrap up of the monthly topic.

Here are examples of session topics: academic publishing, popular press publishing, professional conferences, preparing a lecture, dynamics of regular writing, work-life balance.

In addition to the monthly scheduled meeting, junior members are especially encouraged to communicate with the senior member at other times, and use to the entire group as their support network.

 

Open Questions and Decision Points

1. Which dimensions of marginalization should be prioritized?Race is one obvious candidate, but we welcome other suggestions.
2. What are the criteria for the selection of senior member? Must the senior member be a full professor? Must the senior member be a member of the historically marginalized group?
3. How should participants be compensated?Academics who belong to historically marginalized groups are already disproportionately charged with invisible labor on campus. Are there mechanisms that can be used to compensate for yet more labor asked of participants, perhaps especially of senior participants?