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| Center on the Science of Diversity inauguration event. From
left: Kellogg School Former Dean Dipak C. Jain, Center Co-chairs
Galen Bodenhausen and Katherine Phillips, and Weinberg
College Former Interim Dean Aldon Morris Photo
© Nathan Mandell |
Vision
and Goals
The
CSD emerged from an interdisciplinary collaboration between Katherine
W. Phillips, associate professor of management and organizations
at the Kellogg School of Management and Galen
Bodenhausen, professor of psychology and marketing at
the Kellogg School and in the Weinberg College of Arts and
Sciences. In establishing the Center, Professors Phillips
and Bodenhausen seek to mobilize an extensive pool of scholarly
talent at Northwestern University to join forces in better
understanding the implications of powerful societal dynamics
surrounding the issue of diversity. For years awareness
of the American workforce’s changing demography has
been growing, but the full implications of these changes
have been insufficiently explored. Moreover, issues such
as equal employment opportunity, segregation in the school
systems and social disparities in health and education have
remained the subject of intense public discussion. Dramatic
increases in international, intercultural contact and interaction
in the arenas of business, education and research further
underscore the necessity of developing a clear understanding
of how diversity influences outcomes in important life domains.
It is the foundational premise of the Center that developing
this kind of understanding requires rigorous, interdisciplinary
scientific inquiry. By developing evidence-based knowledge
that can be applied to these important societal issues,
the CSD’s researchers seek to provide insight and
direction in the effective management of diversity issues
across a range of social settings.
The
CSD’s core mission is thus to promote academic, managerial
and educational research and dialogue about the impact of
diversity on society. Although diversity is an increasingly
ubiquitous reality of modern life, there are still important
social, organizational and institutional contexts in which
attaining representative patterns of social diversity remains
an unrealized goal. Understandably, considerable attention
has addressed the discriminatory barriers that have prevented
effective diversification. In addition to establishing greater
diversity in relevant social settings, it is also important
to understand how the rich opportunities for creativity
and collaboration that diverse social environments afford
can best be realized. Our mission focuses on identifying
the factors that promote the robust emergence of diversity’s
potential benefits as well as potential roadblocks that
can undermine positive outcomes in diverse settings.
In keeping
with the idea that diversity affords special opportunities
for innovation, the CSD is a truly interdisciplinary center
in which a variety of scholarly perspectives are represented
and where researchers can engage in lively debate, discussion
and collaboration. Our goal is to foster scientific projects
and inquiries that transcend disciplinary boundaries but
that also fully exploit the unique strengths and diverse
methodologies of the individual disciplines.
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