Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Mission Statement:

The Department of Linguistics at the University of Kansas is committed to welcoming, valuing, and supporting every individual person and their unique contributions. We are actively working to foster an environment for learning, working, and being where diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and mutual respect thrive: an environment that welcomes, openly acknowledges, empowers, and celebrates the diversity of all of our students, staff, faculty, and visitors. An environment that affirms the identities and experiences of all our members. An environment where we actively resist racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia, and other forms of prejudice and discrimination. 

We recognize that diversity is intersectional, and that actively valuing diversity demands that we continually strive to establish a welcoming atmosphere for all. This includes, but is not limited to, valuing diversity in race, ethnicity, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, status as international or domestic student, language, dialect, socio-economic class, physical ability, mental health, religion, immigrant status, military status, marital status, parental status, or age.

Current Work and Objectives:

In working toward these goals, we believe that it is imperative to be transparent, to hold ourselves accountable to our professed ideals, and to create an environment that builds trust. Initial steps that we are taking include the following:

• Self-examination, including but not limited to administering regularly-scheduled department-wide climate surveys and the development of clear, actionable steps informed by survey results
• Providing a continuously-accessible online form for department members to share thoughts related to DEIB issues and events
• Hosting semesterly DEIB events that are directly related to the needs expressed by our students, faculty members, and staff
• Expanding our department-internal TA training curriculum to include diversity and inclusion training
• Organizing Safe Zone training for all department employees

If you have any questions or know of a valuable resource that we could include on our site, please contact our DEIB Committee.