Preaching to the Choir: University Diversity Committees as Affective Communities

Abstract

This paper asks, what significance do diversity committee meetings have for how diversity workers experience, make sense of, and navigate the challenges of diversity work at a large, public research university? Drawing on a sixteen-month ethnography of diversity policy and practice, I analyze the practice of "preaching to the choir" among committee members and explore the different affective attachments that form between diversity workers, their works, and the objects of diversity interventions. [affect theory, diversity, higher education, meeting ethnography]

StateChurch: Bringing Religion to Public Higher Education

“…We have no nothing". Previous research on the work of diversity-related initiatives like committees have demonstrated the central role of goal-setting in mobilizing productive change (Anderson 2020;Leon and Williams 2016). Clearly, any top-down religious diversity initiative should provide clear direction with any initiative designed to reflect a sustained institutional posture toward productive religious engagement.…”

Diversity Committees During The Era of Social Justice

“…Advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion must go beyond mere diversity statements; to be successful, its elements must permeate the institution's strategic plans, and the fruits of its labor must be evident and measurable (Figure 2). American idiom "preaching to the choir" as a metaphor to highlight shared similarities in race, gender, and partnerships made through diversity committee work (Anderson, 2020). Anderson described the different challenges related to committee work as a burden, whereby Chief Diversity Officers often reported feeling dissatisfied and even marginalized due to a lack of adequate support and institutional resources.…”