Members of the Department of Geography stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, our Black and racialized students, and all people calling for racial justice. We stand against police brutality directed at Black people in the United States, including the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and countless others. And we stand against violence directed at protesters exercising their constitutional rights. Our research and teaching embrace diversity because we believe in a pluralistic society and are committed to justice for all peoples. We would like to share actions and initiatives related to racial equity that are in development for the 2020–21 academic year.
In January 2020, under the leadership of our department head and through faculty consensus, diversity and equity emerged as one of three key strategic planning themes for our department for the next five years. Our aim is to weave equity and diversity throughout the strategic planning process, including such areas as faculty hiring, student recruitment, curriculum, admissions practices, and goals for creating a safe and welcoming culture in our department. The latter will be addressed both by looking outward to diversify our departmental community but also by reflecting inward on how our department operates.
The protests in the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, alongside strategic planning discussions and a wealth of research revealing how institutions like universities perpetuate racial injustice in their everyday activities—even if this is not the intent—have prompted members of our department to think deeply about our role in creating a safe, welcoming, and anti-racist environment in the halls of Walker Building, in our discipline, and in society.
On June 10, 2020, the department and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences participated in#ShutDownAcademia and #ShutDownSTEM as part of a call from a coalition of scholars for academia and STEM to take action against anti-Black racism. Geography graduate students have also held discussions and made proposals for action to combat anti-Black racism and diversify the discipline of geography. Graduate students have provided crucial intellectual leadership as we discuss actions our department can take to disrupt anti-Black racism and other forms of racism on Penn State’s University Park campus, in State College, and in the United States today.
As of fall 2020 our department will have a new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee to spearhead these efforts. Preliminary proposals include holding regular, repeated discussions among the full faculty about racism and anti-racism; creating a venue for members of the department to anonymously comment on the departmental atmosphere, racism, and related topics; creating a monthly reading group, open to everyone in the department, focused on race and anti-racism from both an academic and practical standpoint; exploring how the department can source more materials and services from Black, Indigenous and people of Color (BIPOC) businesses, and supporting colleagues across campus in discussions about Penn State’s relationship with policing.
Our department is committed to becoming actively anti-racist, and we look forward to working with all members of our departmental community to build consensus and move forward.