Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Our program is committed to the goal of improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of departmental operations. Diversity here includes but is not limited to: race, indigeneity, gender identity, sexual orientation, caste, religion, cultural/educational background, (dis)ability, nationality, and socioeconomic status.

Current EDI Activities

  • The Department of English and the Creative Writing Program have hired five new assistant professors since 2022: Aamina Ahmad, author of the novel The Return of Faraz Ali (Riverhead); Beatrice Bradley, scholar of early modern literature, critical theory (with a focus in gender and sexuality studies), and health humanities; Megan Giddings, author of three novels, most recently Meet Me at the Crossroads (Amistad, 2025); Tosin Gbogi, scholar of African and African diaspora literatures, popular culture, and discourse-oriented sociolinguistics; and Jessica Horvath Williams, co-chair of the Critical Disability Studies Collective at the University of Minnesota and a scholar of feminist disability studies and 19th-century US history and literature.
  • Over the past three years the department has created new courses designed to make the English undergraduate curriculum more diverse, equitable, and inclusive in its approach to literary history and creative writing, and has revised other classes to reflect this aim. Such courses include “Adaptation: Literature and Film," "Alternative Histories," "Banned Books," "Engaging Queer Cinema," and “Writing the YA Social Justice Novel."
  • The department partnered with the Critical Disability Studies Collective on an application to the Mellon Foundation which resulted in a $500,000 grant to develop new curriculum and programming
  • Creative Writing's Edelstein-Keller Visiting Writer series and the Department of English's Freier Lectures in Literature series continue their commitment to showcasing BIPOC and GLBTQ+ writers with 2025-2026 events featuring authors CA Conrad, Ocean Vuong, Sarah Thankham Mathews, Hanif Abdurraqib, Celeste Ng, and Attica Locke.
  • English frequently co-sponsors events presented by our colleagues in RIDGS and other campus organizations and groups that focus on equity and inclusion. 
  • The Department of English and Creative Writing Program have increased BIPOC representation among adjunct instructors, an ongoing focus.
  • The Creative Writing Program has supplemented their admissions readers with writers from diverse backgrounds and changed its admissions waitlist policy to a non-ranked system. The program also awarded program-based EDI fellowships for students who are creating/administering projects that promote EDI.
  • The English department continues to collaborate with Mixed Blood Theatre's founder Jack Reuler to bring diverse actors to English classrooms to perform course texts. The program has received funding from a Faculty Driven grant from the Institute for Diversity, Equity, and Advocacy; through the Liberal Arts Engagement Hub of the College of Liberal Arts; and the department's Donovan Fund. In addition, Mixed Blood was honored with a CLA Civitas Community Partner Award for the collaboration.

Recent EDI Activities

  • The department's three-year plan was submitted in spring 2023 to the College of Liberal Arts. The department engaged in sustained conversations about EDI challenges in every facet of the three-year planning process, with each meeting including discussion of how undergraduate curriculum, career readiness initiatives, graduate programs, hiring decisions, and public engagement could be approached to help us meet EDI goals.
  • The department collaborated with youth advocacy organization Migizi to bring Native youth to the University for a campus tour and an exclusive writing workshop with visiting poet Layli Long Soldier.
  • The MFA program in Creative Writing received Creating Inclusive Cohorts Training Grants in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, rare consecutive years of CIC funding from the Graduate School; the grants, which assist graduate programs in their efforts to increase and sustain student diversity, allowed Creative Writing to admit up to six students each year who qualify for the CIC first-year fellowship.
  • The department organized presentations for all faculty, staff, and instructors through the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence (MCAE), Circle of Indigenous Nations, MLK Advising Program, Office for Equity & Diversity, and CAIR-MN.
  • Graduate students, lecturers, and faculty collaborated with Senior Lecturer Eric Daigre to create The Syllabus and Early Weeks: Suggestions and Ideas for Building Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) into Our Courses—A Rough Guide, which continues to be available as a department teaching resource.
  • The department approved changes to the undergraduate English major that created a "Diversity" requirement, while combining requirements in “Textual Analysis” and “Language, Theory, and Criticism” into a single course in “Critical Theories and Methods.” The change went into effect fall 2021.
  • The department is following the College of Liberal Arts’ equitization procedures to eliminate sex-based salary disparities, as well as any other disparities that have arisen.
  • Both MFA and PhD graduate programs have eliminated the GRE requirement as a potential barrier to diverse applicants; program applicants are also now required to submit a diversity statement.
  • Faculty searches now require applicants to submit a diversity statement. All search committees receive extensive instruction in implicit bias; search chairs and departmental administrators have implicit bias training.

2019 EDI Report

In the spring of 2019 English Chair Andrew Elfenbein initiated an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee. This initial EDI Committee worked over the summer of 2019 to create a comprehensive report of the department's climate, representation, and programming, "We Are All in This: A Report Re: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion."

We Are ALL in This: A Report Re: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (PDF)

As a result of the document, a standing department committee on EDI was established. The EDI Committee is composed of three tenured and two tenure-track faculty, one staff member, one MFA graduate student, one PhD graduate student, and one graduate student alum. The role of the committee is to advise the department about specific actions and changes English can make to forward the goal of improving EDI within the department.