Philosophy in the USA continues to be a remarkably non-diverse discipline, demographically (ca. 75% white and 75% male), linguistically, and methodologically, even though the numbers of scholars from historically underrepresented groups have indeed increased over the past decade. However, a central issue remains how to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work goes beyond simply adding a few faces that look different while mostly maintaining inequitable and exclusionary structures and practices.

In this presentation, I will address some of the current initiatives in US philosophy that are aimed at transforming the values and ethos of teaching, research, and service at various institutional levels through local and translocal work. In particular, I will refer to summer school “diversity institutes” for undergraduate students from underrepresented groups, mentoring and leadership initiatives for early and mid-career scholars, and initiatives to change curricula and credentialing practices, both at the level of the discipline and more locally in departments and programs. The aim is to take these initiatives as entry points into further conversations to explore together strategies for coordinating and sustaining the imperfect, messy, slow, at times frustrating, exhausting, and often enough ambiguous efforts of changing the institutions in which we participate.