Climate and Diversity

The Philosophy Department has a Climate Working Group, made up of faculty members, graduate students, and staff. It serves as a forum to discuss issues related to the department climate. The following statement comes from this group.

Our graduate community is heterogeneous along many dimensions of difference: race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, socio-economic status, citizenship status, as well as in scholarship, and approaches to philosophy. Over the last 10 years, roughly 50% of our graduate students were women, 50% men, 50% White,18% Black, 20% Asian, and 12% of Near Eastern or Hispanic descent, 70% identified as U.S. citizens, and 30% as citizens of other countries. Students work on a broad range of topics; recently completed or in progress dissertations focus on topics in: ethics (6); philosophy of law (5); philosophy of science or computer science (4); epistemology (4); social and political philosophy (4); history (3); mind (3); philosophy of race, metaphysics, logic, aesthetics, action theory, language (1 each).

We are committed to creating and maintaining a community in which there is equity, diversity, and genuine inclusion and belonging. This is central to our department’s goal of being a place where all members of our community can do the best work they can: in their research, teaching, and learning. That requires that all students are treated fairly and impartially. We strive to ensure that there are no barriers to participation in courses, programming and events.

In pursuit of these goals, we have tried and continue to try to promote a department culture that fosters a sense of security, safety, and genuine belonging across the community. Such a culture must go beyond avoiding discrimination; it must be intolerant of exclusionary practices and behavior such as microaggression; it must provide a comfortable and accepting space for all its members. Among the steps we have taken to promote these goals in the last ten years are periodic climate surveys, the departmental Climate Working Group, and yearly interviews of graduating students to gauge what does and does not work in the program.

Ongoing Initiatives

Our ongoing initiatives include the following.

Graduate student participation in department governance and decision making

Two graduate representatives are elected yearly by the graduate students. They attend department faculty meetings, save those in which confidential material such as letters of recommendation for graduate admissions and job searches are discussed. The Grad Reps’ responsibilities include presenting graduate student perspectives and ensuring that department discussions and decisions are relayed to the graduate students.

Graduate student autonomy in making teaching assignments

We aim to ensure that assignments of graduate students to discussion sections are determined fairly, without giving rise to concerns about faculty favoritism. To this end, these assignments are determined solely by graduate students according to a set of rules they have developed

Climate Working Group

The Department Climate Working Group is made up of three faculty members, five graduate students (one from each G-year from G2 through G6) and a staff member. The CWG meets several times each term. Besides offering a place where students, faculty, and staff can openly and safely discuss climate issues, the CWG:

  • Conducts exit interviews of students who have completed the Ph.D. to gauge what does and does not work well in the program. These interviews are conducted by student members of the CWG and, after being anonymized, are circulated to students, faculty, and staff.

  • Organizes occasional department wide meetings to discuss climate relevant issues such as advising, mentoring, non-academic employment, and climate relevant issues associated with graduate student teaching.

  • Composes departmental climate surveys, the results of which are presented to and discussed by the community.

  • Coordinates occasional events such as: graduate student workshops on mental health and dealing with academic and personal stressors; return visits by graduate students to discuss how their time at Harvard did (and did not) prepare them for their post graduate school careers.

Participation in PIKSI Boston

PIKSI Boston is a diversity institute held almost continuously since 2015 at MIT. Harvard and MIT jointly finance the institute; Harvard Faculty serve on the steering committee, along with faculty from several other New England schools; Harvard graduate students serve as directors and teaching fellows in the program itself.

Minorities and Philosophy (MAP)

Harvard MAP is a graduate student organization that principally works to advance the interests of underrepresented minorities in philosophy. We collectively advocate around a number of issues including the defense of minority students against all forms of discrimination (overt and subtle), the adoption of non-western philosophy in curriculum, and the rooting out of colonial and white supremacist tendencies in the discipline of philosophy. Our aim is not merely an academy without barriers of entry for minorities, but one in which diverse participation and inclusive community are actualized. Additionally, we are a space for minority PhD students to share their struggles and experiences in a spirit of comradery. Each year, MAP hosts as a guest-speaker a philosopher who is an underrepresented minority and/or works on philosophical issues relevant to the interests of underrepresented students in the department. Harvard’s MAP chapter is part of the broader MAP International.