This guidance is for faculty and departments engaged in a search process. The guidance here is borne of an in-depth review of current best practices and research on the topic.
The choices made in faculty hiring reflect the values and beliefs of the faculty making them. Faculty hiring is the vehicle for a department to either maintain a status quo or to evolve along with the ever-changing landscape of academia and meeting the moment of change by hiring an academically exceptional and heterogenous faculty to meet all academic needs.
Choices made will determine whether faculty feel connected to the department or each other, whether faculty feel included or out of place. Choices made reach far beyond the goal numerical representation and are intimately linked to the existential well-being and future of a department.
Departments must resist the false choice between “excellence” and “diversity” and instead, embrace a view of the academic mission that includes fielding a robust faculty that can best meet the needs of undergraduates, prospective graduate students, future collaborators, and ensure the department’s areas of scholarship are future-oriented and relevant.
If you have questions or wish to discuss your situation specifically, please contact Quade French (Click here). The file is available to view below or to download with this link (USC Dornsife – Reimagining Faculty Hiring FA24).