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Introduction

How many students at Dartmouth have taken a Gender studies class? How about an African American Studies class? How many times a week do you eat out on campus? Do you think that there is a financial divide on campus? How many of your Professors have been queer or non-white?

In this Podcast, we seek to illuminate the reality of inclusivity and diversity on Dartmouth’s campus using the voices and perspectives of some of Dartmouth’s students, Professors, and administrative data. By no means are our interviews comprehensive or representative of all identities and experiences at Dartmouth. Rather, we simply wanted to take some of the lived experiences of diversity on campus and compare them with how the administration portrays Dartmouth’s inclusivity, whether that is in terms of socioeconomic status, race, gender, or sexuality, or any other identity that one might hold.

We’re calling this project The Temporality of Wokeness at Dartmouth as coined by Professor Treva Ellison to signify the often-delayed acknowledgement or recognition of these disparities on campus until students later years.

We believe that this project relates to our Women’s and Gender Studies 16 course themes in several ways. First, Roderick Ferguson’s discussion of racial capitalism and surplus value relates to how Dartmouth’s administration promotes its image of diversity and progressivity, while failing to properly support and compensate these individuals by providing them with adequate resources and spaces on campus.

Despite its promotion of certain statistics trumpeting its racial diversity, Dartmouth is not truly increasing the diversity of the school. Additionally, Dartmouth profits from the surplus value generated by the labor of professors of color non-heterosexual professors, while failing to provide job security or comprehensive benefits to these professors.

The second major theme from the course we believe is relevant to our project is intersectionality, as discussed by Kimberlé Crenshaw, Jennifer Nash, Ange-Marie Hancock, Robyn Weigman. We believe Dartmouth addresses broad categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality independently while failing to see how these multiplicities of identity interact and shape the lived experiences of students and professors.

Third, based on Denise Da Silva’s hierarchy of bodies, we decided to interview students and professors to see how individuals of certain identities felt more or less comfortable on campus, as some identities are both more visible and more valued by the institution. Additionally, we applied Da Silva’s theory of convenient citizenship to how Dartmouth as an institution uses misleading statistics about campus diversity to its convenience and benefit while failing to support minority communities on a day-to-day basis.

Finally, our overall goal is to compare the data put out by the college with the lived experiences of individuals on campus.

As a guide to the podcast, first, we’ll provide some of the statistical data put out by the college’s office of institutional research. Second, we’ll contrast that data with interviews with a few students on campus from different class years and communities. Third, we’ll supplement the interviews from students with insight from professors, who get a look into both administrative actions and student life. Finally, we’ll offer concluding remarks and our thoughts on what we’ve learned while making this podcast.