Dr. Vincent L. Stephens, Ph.D., Associate Dean, Diversity and inclusion, at Boston University’s College of Arts & Sciences.
Photo by Janice Checchio for Boston University Photography.

During the 2020/21 academic year, the College of Arts & Sciences continued to prioritize initiatives that increase inclusion and build community in ways that celebrate the racial, cultural, ethnic, religious, ability, sexual orientation, and gender diversity of our campus.

In January, we welcomed Dr. Vincent L. Stephens, our first-ever associate dean for diversity and inclusion. As leader of the CAS Office of Diversity & Inclusion (CAS D&I), Dr. Stephens is collaborating with administrators, faculty, students, and members of the CAS Diversity and Inclusion Action Team, formed in fall 2020, to define and implement the college’s priorities with respect to diversity and inclusion.

CAS D&I’s launch of the DEI Committee and Liaison Network—formed to help departments and programs advance their goals in a sustainable interactive structure—its facilitation of DEI educational opportunities for CAS faculty and staff, and the launching of the CAS Community Values & Response Team are central examples of how CAS D&I is leading DEI work strategically. Efforts to address the needs of students include launching a search for a student DEI engagement coordinator and hiring undergraduate student interns.

Here are some other projects that expanded diversity and inclusion in our campus community this year:

Establishing BU as a Leader in Antiracism

In July 2020, Ibram X. Kendi, a nationally renowned scholar of antiracism, came to BU to become the founding director of our new Center for Antiracist Research. One of his first actions was to announce bold plans to publish The Emancipator, an independent antiracist multimedia platform launched in partnership with the Boston Globe.

Kendi, professor of history, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, co-created the platform to help reframe the national conversation on race and to provide a mainstream, journalistic outlet for the center’s academic ideas and practices.

You can read more about Professor Kendi and The Emancipator in a March 21, 2021, issue of the New York Times.

In addition, Professor Kendi launched the Racial Data Lab, a joint venture between the Center for Antiracist Research and the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences that is bringing together antiracist research and data science to pioneer and lead the field of racial data science. And he received a 2021 MacArthur “Genius” Grant” for his creativity, scholarly achievements, and skill at communicating the message of antiracism to a diverse audience. 

Launching New Undergraduate Classes

The interest in classes on African American subjects has been growing for several years. But after the protests over the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, demand skyrocketed. The BU Center for the Humanities (BUCH), the CAS Dean’s Office, and the Kilachand Honors College responded by launching the African American Studies Course Initiative.

The initiative’s goal is to build out the African American Studies Program’s course offerings as it seeks to create an undergraduate academic major (in addition to a minor) and transition from a program to a full department.

New classes include:

  • Resistance, Revolution, and Slavery in African American Literature (Spring 2021)
  • The Afro-Latino Memoir (Spring 2021)
  • Latinx Identities, Families, and Communities (Fall 2021)
  • African American Literature and the Classical Tradition (Fall 2021)
  • American Minstrelsy (Spring 2022)

Funding Early Career Scholars

BU Diversity & Inclusion’s new Emerging Scsholars Program is providing funds to departments throughout BU to support individuals or groups of early-career scholars from historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. Funds help pay for conferences and other learning and networking opportunities.

For the 2021/22 academic year, Emerging Scholars funding went to the Department of Anthropology (two awards), the Department of Biology, the Department of Earth & Environment, and the Department of History in partnership with the African American Studies Program.

In the 2020/21 academic year, funding went to the Department of Anthropology; the Departments of Archaeology, Anthropology, and African American Studies; the Department of Linguistics (two awards); the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences; and the Department of Religion.

Demonstrating Diversity Leadership

CAS students, alums, and faculty showed their commitment to enhancing diversity and inclusion and building community in countless ways this year. Here are a few examples of the work they did:

  • Ferren Winarto (CGS’21) launched Are We Cool?, a movement aimed at combating negativity on social media. The project, on which she collaborated with seven other students and alums, was honored at the 2021 Harvard College Project for Asian & International Relations.
  • Many CAS students stood out as part of a new wave of student activists leading efforts to create a more equitable environment on campus and in their communities. For example, Owen Woodcock (CAS’21) works with the BU Chapter of Uprooted & Rising, an organization that is pressuring organizations (including BU) to move from “Big Food” suppliers (such as Aramark) to local food suppliers, including Black-owned-and-operated businesses. And Christa Nuzzo (CAS’22), one of BU’s most prominent advocates for LGBTQ+ rights and causes, is working to turn Q (short for the Queer Activist Collective) into a comprehensive resources center for LGBTQ+ students. Read more about them in Bostonia.
  • Alum Graham Grail (CAS’18, Wheelock’18) recently published a study that helped fill in knowledge gaps for the trans community about the impact of testosterone therapy on voice. His study, which appeared in the journal Scientific Reports, is based on research he began as a sophomore at BU.

Building a Strong On-Campus Community

These students and faculty put their commitment to community into action this year:

  • In her popular undergraduate class, Asians Are People of Color, Race Relations and Writing, Swati Rani, a lecturer in the CAS Writing Program, created a safe space for a community of writers with a range of backgrounds to explore race and ethnicity through writing. Rani, chair of the Writing Program’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, was honored as one of two BU faculty recipients of the 2021 Susan K. Jackson Award.
  • Several BU students, including Lara Werneck (CAS’23), Jenna Hansen (CAS’23), Yiran Yu (CAS’23), Lauren Mai (Pardee’22), Safiya Umrani (Pardee’23), and Aurouramary Estaba (Pardee’22), launched Migration Tales, a website that showcases immigrant stories.
  • Researchers and interns in the Hariri Institute for Computing worked with Associate Professor of Sociology Heather Schoenfeld to analyze data that could help reduce prison populations. The project, which used a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation, studied various data sets to gain insights into criminal justice reform across the United States.
  • BU Center for Humanities (BUCH) received a $300,000 grant that will bring low-income Boston-area high school students to campus for the next three summers for a college-prep seminar program. The three-week summer programs will include classes, tutoring, and mentorship.
  • BUCH also launched a community podcast featuring conversations with writers who have written books about their personal stories of migration.
  • BU’s Initiative on Cities annual Menino Survey of Mayors, which surveyed 130 mayors across 38 states, revealed mayors’ views about police violence in their communities and other important topics. Read the report’s findings.