Adinkra is a printed or stamped traditional cloth made by the Ashanti people of Ghana in West Africa. The cloth has been made for a very long time, though no one knows how long. At one time, Adinkra cloth was only worn for funerals. The fabric you wore, and how you wore it, depended on your relationship to the deceased, and the symbols on the clothes contained messages in their patterns. In modern times Adinkra cloth is worn for a variety of celebrations and young Ghanaians wear white Adinkra for weddings. Graphics and information courtesy of Oxfam.org.

The work described on these pages is very exciting to all of us here in the department. There are many other diversity-related projects in our department that are not yet represented, but we plan to add more over time. Our aim is to share our excitement with you so you can better understand the wide range of interest we have in the topic. We also see it as a tool to helps us to share ideas and identify new common interests among us.

The term “ diversity” is frequently written and talked about—and the perspectives are wide-ranging. We chose the term diversity over “multiculturalism” because we wanted a broader concept that more explicitly included social groups and identities that are not cultures in the traditional anthropological sense, such as sexual orientation, age, gender and the like. Rather than choose among the wide variety of definitions and attitudes associated with diversity, we decided to bring them to a common space on the web site where our shared and diverging ideas can stimulate us all.

The one theme among these projects is the distinctive experiences associated with membership in a socially and politically-constructed group—whether it is race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, culture, and (or) one of several others. Within- or between-group differences may be the focus, but frequently action as well asresearch is central to the projects. Many of them involve interventions, action research methods, or efforts to understand how environments influence behavior. Often the goal is to develop a population-specific intervention, theory or social policy that is in accord with group’s distinctiveness.

This section of the psychology department’s web site is an initiative of its Committee on Diversity. The Committee has defined two broad themes in its work. The first is demographic diversity—the Committee supports the representation and advancement of those who are members of historically disenfranchised U.S. populations. The second theme is institutionalizing a diversity of worldview and identity. The committee believes that ideas based on a variety of cultures, worldviews, and social identities enhances learning and scholarship. The committee seeks to foster a diverse educational environment based on both of these themes.

Goals of the Department of Psychology’s Committee on Diversity:

1. Education and Professional Development: Educate faculty and students on culture and worldview and their relationship to philosophies of knowledge and research methodology.
2. Scholarship: Provide models of scholarship that are cognizant of the social context of psychological theory, research, teaching, and practice as described in the definition above.
3. Social Analysis and Ethics: Create opportunities for faculty and student to examine the sociocultural implications and impact of their work so that it is consistent with the American Psychological Association’s ethical guidelines: Psychologists respect and protect human and civil rights, and do not knowingly participate in or condone unfair discriminatory practices… They apply and make public their knowledge of psychology in order to contribute to human welfare.
4. Organization Development: Use the knowledge generated in points one to three above for the ongoing improvement of all aspects of departmental operations—and for the welfare of faculty, students, and staff.
5. Equal Access and Opportunity: Support affirmative action policies and other recruitment and retention initiatives that promote a demographically diverse faculty, staff, and student body.