
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
The Psychology Department’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee promotes the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion among faculty, staff, and students in the Psychology Department.
Membership
The department chair selects the members of the DEI committee, which is composed of three faculty (one from each of our three subfields), three graduate students (one from each subfield), and two department staff. The committee reports to and consults with the department chair.
Committee charge
The charge for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee includes the following:
- Promote the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Psychology Department.
- Organize quarterly events related to these goals, such as speakers, workshops, and social gatherings.
- Facilitate communication and understanding among constituencies and serve as a department resource. Engage students, staff, and faculty to assess needs related to DEI; propose strategies for assessing progress.
- Identify challenges and strengths in achieving DEI goals and make recommendations to the chair and department regarding ways to achieve DEI goals.
The committee’s programs are open to all students, faculty, and staff, consistent with state and federal law and UC policy.
Upcoming events
Check back for more upcoming events. Also, you can view our previous events.
2024-2025 committee members
Contact the current Diversity Committee members at psychdiversity@ucsc.edu.
Jeremy Yamashiro (Committee Chair, faculty)
Margarita Azmitia, winter-spring (faculty)
Samantha Fong (graduate student)
Aiswarya Gangadhar (graduate student)
Isabelle Gross (graduate student)
Craig Haney (faculty)
Grace Hwang, fall only (faculty)
Jexy An Nepangue (graduate student)
Katie Ritchey (staff)
Mike Vallerga (graduate student)
Julia Wanlin (staff)
View all past members.
Spotlight on diversity
DEI antiracism resources
Explore the resources of the UCSC Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity. You can also use the lists below, which are a compilation of articles, videos, and research on antiracism and BIPOC support.
Intro: The basics of racism and antiracism
This category is for people wanting to know more about racism and its definitions, in order to engage in antiracism.
- Let’s get to the root of racial injustice: This video traces the root causes of our current racial climate to their core causes, debunking common misconceptions and calling out “fix-all” cures to a complex social problem.
- How racial bias works and how to disrupt it: “Psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt explores how our biases unfairly target Black people at all levels of society and discusses how creating points of friction can help us actively interrupt and address this troubling problem.”
- Systemic Racism Explained: This short introductory video explains how racism is systemic.
- The UC land grab: a Legacy of profit from Indigenous land: This playlist of videos from UC Berkeley details the history of the public land-grant university movement’s role in the displacement and genocide of California Natives and how the UC continues to benefit from this wealth accumulation today.
- A Conversation with Latinos on Race: This video discusses the complexities of Latinidad in the U.S. and what that means for racial stereotypes.
- TEDtalk on Racism: This video explains how subconscious bias leads to racial stereotyping.
- The Significance of Linguistic Profiling: John Baugh talks about how linguistic discrimination and profiling are harmful.
Deepening our understanding of antiracism
This category is for people who want to learn more about anti-racist practices and gain a deeper understanding. These resources will give more context-specific examples (e.g., intersectionality).
- Dear White Women: how to be an ally: “A letter reminding modern white feminists of their relationship with Black women throughout history.”
- White Supremacy Culture worksheet: This popular worksheet lists characteristics of White Supremacy Culture in organizations.
- Ibram X. Kendi (author of How To Be an Antiracist) video: Ibram X. Kendi discusses his new book How to Be an Antiracist and answers the question, “How do I be antiracist? I know I’m not racist.”
- Let’s Talk About “BIPOC” Black, Indigenous, People of Color: Four diversity scholars discuss the origins and uses of the acronym.
- How Standardized Tests Were Designed By Racists and Eugenicists: This brief video of Ibram X Kendi explains the history of the racist origins of standardized testing.
- How White Feminists Oppress Black Women: When Feminism Functions as White Supremacy: This short-read takes an intersectional approach to discuss how racism can be ingrained in many social justice spaces.
- Social Change Ecosystem Map: This workbook suggests various roles needed for social change (e.g., disruptor, visionary, frontline responder, etc).
- The Urgency of Intersectionality: This classic video shows Kimberlé Crenshaw introducing intersectionality.
Applying antiracism in our research, teaching, and service
This set of resources tackles how antiracism shows up in the organization, and what people can do about it in their research, teaching, service, practices, culture, etc.
- Anti-racist pedagogy in action: First steps: Columbia’s Center for Teaching and Learning curated 5-step resource guides that include actionable steps toward implementing anti-racism in classroom settings, including self-educate and acknowledge racial trauma, interrogate your positionality and unconscious biases, address curricular gaps with intentional course design, fostering a class community, and engaging the campus and committing to action beyond the classroom.
- Re-Examined: Does Disaggregated Data Matter In Education?: Discusses the need to desegregate data and why it is important for communities and educational outcomes. This source especially highlights this need for those in Asian, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.
- Practicing Equity with Fidelity to Racial Justice: Equity pioneer Estela Bensimon gives a convocation talk about practicing equity within teaching and researching racial justice efforts.
- Strategies for anti-racist and decolonized pedagogy: Discusses five key areas of action for educators that lay out strategies for anti-racist and decolonized pedagogy.
- Conducting research through an Anti-racist lens: A guide for educators for practicing antiracism at different stages of research.
- Making the transition from ally to co-conspirator: A short read that invites white people to shift from being an ally to a more active and critical role: co-conspirator.
BIPOC support
Resources for BIPOC scholars about how to use writing, research, and teaching as an outlet for liberation and healing. These resources include suggestions for how to process, facilitate empowerment, use your voice, develop survivance, and find ways that all of this can guide our scholarship.
- Black and Exhausted in America: Robert Sellers, professor in psychology and vice provost of DEI at Ann Arbor, affirms our exhaustion while also reframing struggle and optimism.
- Surviving Institutions that Weren’t Created For You: Validates BIPOC students when navigating the realities of academia.
- ““For Our Words Usually Land on Deaf Ears Until We Scream”: Writing as a Liberatory Practice”: Shantel Martinez discusses the role of writing for Liberation.
- Researching while Black (and Female): NiCole Buchanan reflects on her experience in academia as a Black woman and offers suggestions to women of color in early careers on navigating academic culture and systems.
- It takes a village to raise a researcher: Narrative interviewing as intervention, reconciliation, and growth: Former UCSC Psychlogy faculty members, Aaronette White and William Dotson give an example of how research can promote knowledge of the self in service of liberation.
- Decolonizing Methodologies: Can relational research be a basis for renewed relationships?: This short video features indigenous community psychologist Shawn Wilson affirming scholars who feel marginalized by white colonial knowledge production systems. It offers an introduction to radical relationality in our research.