Welcome to the summer 2024 edition of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Newsletter for the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts at The Ohio State University!
It is a particularly important time to reflect on our shared commitment to DEIJ. At the time of publication, many students at The Ohio State University have been assembling to protest the genocide in Palestine. The University has met student protesters with excessive force. Administrators brought heavily armed police forces onto campus to violently confront peaceful demonstrators, subjecting them to physical abuse and arresting them with restraints that were not justified by the situation.
University and college campuses are (or should be) bastions of democratic process that support the exercise of free speech and intellectual exchange for all people and for all views. Indeed, this ideal is reflected in our community’s shared values, particularly Ohio State’s self-stated mission “to prepare a diverse student body to be leaders and engaged citizens.” The revised “Commitment to Diversity” statement for the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts makes our position on students’ rights clear: “We value—and defend—free expression, open inquiry, and viewpoint diversity, and we condemn any discrimination based on race, color, gender, sexuality, culture, religion, ancestry, nation of origin, economic status, caste, disability, age, membership to a particular group, political opinion, or other categories of social identity.”
In these uncertain and troubling times, we can gather strength by reflecting on our own growth and accomplishments. During the 2023-2024 year, the department hosted several DEIJ speakers, including Nyama McCarthy-Brown and Chari Arespacochaga, who facilitated interactive discussions about equity and accessibility on and around the stage. More importantly, our graduate students put on an array of amazing performances and won many awards. Please check them out by clicking on “Celebrating Graduate Students” on the navigation plane!
As we look forward to the summer—and, eventually, the fall semester—the DEIJ committee is happy to share some new resources. Among others, these include a link to The Ohio State University’s “Shared Values,” editorials about Higher Ed’s dismantling of DEI committees and the campus protests that are currently sweeping the nation, and an advice column about building trans-inclusive syllabi. The DEIJ Committee has also updated the interfaith and DEIJ calendar for the fall semester. It now lists many of the upcoming holidays, observances, and other dates that will be significant to members of our community.
As ever, the DEIJ Committee welcomes your input and contributions for future installments of this newsletter. For it to act as a co-created resource that benefits—and reflects—all of us, it needs to be a resource that creates a community in which everyone can be heard and seen. If you are planning or participating in a DEIJ-related event, have news to announce or accomplishments to celebrate, or know of resources that should be shared with the department, please tell the committee about it by filling out this anonymous form or by emailing the committee chair John Brooks at brooks.1310@osu.edu.