Western academic philosophy and before that, western philosophy beginning in the ancient world has largely had white male practitioners who spoke and wrote to other white males. Beginning in the 1970s, there has been a counter-trend in professional academic philosophy, led by individual scholars, with support from the American Philosophical Association. Studies in Feminism, LGBT issues, race, ethnicity, Latin American Philosophy, Asian American Philosophy, and Disability have entered the profession as an integral part of recognized scholarly work, as well as demographic difference represented by women and people of color. The University of Oregon Philosophy Department has over the past twenty years affirmed this new intellectual and demographic inclusivity as a core element in all aspects of our work, goals, and daily functioning. The “diversity inventory” that follows, here, merely highlights some of these achievements and efforts.
We are a diverse faculty in terms of ethnic background, gender, and nationality, with a majority of women in departmental leadership positions, which is not typical in our discipline. Our faculty has been considering equity, diversity, and inclusion in their research, in teaching, and in committee-work and we have the reputation of being a leading pluralist department representing multiple traditions that strives to expand the curriculum beyond its traditional borders. Our faculty actively publishes not only in areas that are more traditional but also in feminism, Latin American and decolonial philosophy, philosophy of race, environmental philosophy, and indigenous philosophies.
Generally, faculty takes diversity into account both in their approach to teaching (in the effort to be equitable and inclusive) and in expanding the traditional canon by including feminist and minority perspectives and non-Western approaches in their approach to various topics and by offering courses in feminism, philosophy of race, Indigenous and non-Western philosophies. Among a new introductory course we will be offering in the future is a course in world-philosophies.
Our faculty keeps diversity in mind in its committee work, in hiring and graduate student recruitment efforts. We recently hired an African-American philosopher specializing in critical philosophy of race and faculty actively considered diversity in a search for a position in Environmental Philosophy.
In our Colloquium series we also have been mindful of having diverse speakers addressing diversity related topics such as decolonial philosophy, feminism, and philosophy or race.
Last year, our diversity committee chair initiated and lead the creation of an (optional) Diversity Focus both for undergraduate and graduate students that is taking effect this academic year and that requires student to take diversity related courses and attend diversity related events on campus. We created a weblink in our departmental website dedicated to diversity that has information not only on the Diversity Focus but also about other diversity related activities and resources: https://philosophy.uoregon.edu/diversity/. We participated at the poster session organized by the Division of Equity and Inclusion featuring our new Diversity Focus and won a prize for our poster.
Last year we also started a reading group in disability studies and organized a workshop with Eli Claire, a leading figure in disability studies.
A major new event this academic year is that the leading feminist philosophy journal Hypatia moved to the University of Oregon. (More information can be found here: https://philosophy.uoregon.edu/2018/08/24/new-editorial-team-chosen-for-...) Four of our faculty members jointly took on the editorship of the journal and two graduate students work for the journal as well.