Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP)

Academic Excellence

Our actions in the area of academic excellence reflect a commitment to increase scholarly resources to support education and leading-edge research on issues of race, ethnicity, inequality, and justice around the globe.

Among the goals set in the 2016 DIAP was enhanced support for Brown’s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Since 2016, these centers have hosted 26 visiting scholars, including faculty and postdoctoral researchers, and both centers have expanded their staffs to support their work. The Office of the Provost and the Office of the Dean of the Faculty also provide funding for events and initiatives hosted by the centers.

The Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative was launched in 2016, providing a space for education and collaboration around issues important to Indigenous communities in Rhode Island and globally. The initiative works with campus and community partners to host lectures, discussions, film screenings, art exhibitions and other programs. Faculty teach courses in a variety of subjects, such as American Indian historic and contemporary lifeways, the history of contact between European and Native peoples, environmental health and research in Native communities, historic and contemporary peoples of Central and South America, Indigenous knowledge and the sciences and Native American religion, literature and media. In fall 2019, the initiative received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the development of an undergraduate concentration in Native American and Indigenous studies.

The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs created a postdoctoral fellowship in partnership with the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Pembroke, Cogut Institute for the Humanities, Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, and Population Studies and Training Center as a means to develop a pipeline for promising scholars whose research interests focus on race, ethnicity and immigration.

The Institute at Brown for Environment and Society developed an environment and inequality track that brings a social equity focus to these concentrations. The track encourages students to pursue the study of environmental justice by exploring intersections of race, class, gender, and systems of oppression with regard to environmentalism.

From 2016 to 2020, the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity provided seed funding to students, faculty and departments to implement more than 150 programs, research initiatives and events related to the DIAP.

In DIAP Phase II, the University is committed to increasing opportunities for scholarship and research on issues of equity, justice, power and privilege impacting people and communities locally, nationally and globally.

Additional Areas of Progress