Abstract
Since the US Presidential inauguration of 2025 and the subsequent executive orders criminalizing DEI efforts, hiring must take special care to comply with all existing employment laws. Design Justice is a new initiative within the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, seeking to create space, policy, and practices that support the inclusion and retention of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) as well as other communities who have been historically underinvested. Design Justice is supported by a group of individuals, known as the Collective, who are committed to anti-racism, decolonized pedagogy, and the liberation of communities who have been underinvested historically, in both design academia and industry. Leaders of the Design Justice initiative worked strategically to create faculty positions that support the initiative in the areas of scholarship, teaching, and/or service will involve: anti-racism, racial justice, racial disparities, and/or racial discrimination; equity, power/privilege, and/or bias; benefits to the BIPOC, immigrant, and refugee populations; environmental and social justice; and/or other forms of studying and countering systemic oppression. The strategies used in this cluster hire lead to the hiring of five faculty members of color that have the clear potential, ability, and/or related scholarship to support our BIPOC and other marginalized communities. This paper explores the strategies used to create the position descriptions with regard to laws/policies that discourage the specific naming of identity in the recruitment process, recruit diverse faculty in the application process, and create a faculty cluster with retention efforts supporting growth and creating community.
Presenters
Terresa HardawayDirector of Design Justice and Associate Professor of Graphic Design, College of Design, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, United States Mia Riza
HR Director, College of Design, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Cluster Hire, Hiring, Employment, Racial Diversity, Design Justice, Recruitment, Retention
