Feminist Philosophers

News feminist philosophers can use

Improving the hiring process October 5, 2012

Filed under: bias,disability,discrimination,gender,glbt,maternity,minorities in philosophy,paternity,women in philosophy — Jender @ 11:43 am

Amy Olberding has a great post over at What We’re Doing on ways to improve hiring processes, and how Oklahoma is trying to do so. I’d urge everyone to have a look!

 

3 Responses to “Improving the hiring process”

  1. annejjacobson Says:
    October 5, 2012 at 5:38 pm

    This is wonderful, and great kudos are due to the department. Each piece seems important, but I in some ways like best the idea of have the papers’ self-references taken out before they are independently reviewed. I think that, among other things, it shows an understanding of how bias can work.

    It would be helpful to know how the department got into the position of agreeing to make this effort. The reference to the diversity of students makes me wonder whether there was a nudge from the administration, though I can’t believe that could be the whole story.

  2. Amy Olberding Says:
    October 5, 2012 at 6:32 pm

    Hi, Anne. We got into this completely voluntarily. I think that is part of what is making it work really well for us – there isn’t any tension or resistance, but instead a pretty unified collective will to conduct careful and sophisticated searches. It essentially started with our last search, a few years back. We had a search committee comprised of faculty who all were interested in, and motivated to address, bias and related issues. Since our search committees have had a lot of latitude in shaping the search, they shaped a bias-sensitive search and enacted several of the practices here. Now we’re seeking to formalize these practices, elaborate on some, add a few things, etc. Perhaps that bears emphasizing: We’ve tried versions of much of what’s in the list and the search went really well.

  3. annejjacobson Says:
    October 5, 2012 at 6:42 pm

    Amy, I’m so impressed. I wonder how many departments still are full of people who believe philosophers have unfettered perception of excellence.


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