Communications of the ACM
Beyond Diversity
Credit: diversitycenter.org
I was nervous when I took the stage. Despite assurances from everyone I had shown my speech, I was nervous because I was about to tell the 400 attendees at the 2017 ACM CHI conference's Diversity and Inclusivity Lunch that "diversity" and "inclusivity" are not enough.
There is a rapidly growing appreciation that diversity is a Problem That Must Be Solved in computing; as an example, despite women earning 57% of undergraduate degrees in the U.S., we earn only 18% of degrees in computer and information sciences (see https://bit.ly/1W7j2Re). But it is not just about women: academics facing multiple oppressions—homophobia, transphobia, ableism, racism, anti-Blackness, and intersections of all thesea—have much to say about the often-entrenched views of the "old guard" and the institutions they control. During my time at CHI 2017, I found this firsthand. But what I also found inspired me: young academics (mostly graduate students, many of them queer) are turning a critical eye to established research practices and transforming computing research.
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