Political Science Equity Resources | Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Office

For a summary of committees, equity-based recruitment and additional EDI initiatives, please see below:

Committees

Political Science established its own advisory-to-the-chair EDI committee, comprising faculty and staff, in 2023.

UTM Political Science is an active member of the tri-campus Political Science EDI committee, and one UTM faculty member serves on the committee.

Political Science joined the UTM Equity Network in 2025.

The following is a summary of equity-based recruitment efforts:

All Political Science faculty members completed unconscious bias training in 2019. Since then, specific faculty members have done additional unconscious bias training before serving on search and tenure/promotion committees.
The department requires an EDI statement from all job applicants for faculty positions. These are reviewed and discussed by the search committee.
The department has established a commitment to hiring more women and BIPOC scholars into faculty and staff positions:
- 8 faculty members have been hired since 2019, including 5 BIPOC scholars and 4 women.
  - Political Science now has 8 female and 6 BIPOC faculty members (out of 18 in total).
  - In 2019, there were no BIPOC staff members, but now, the department has 1 BIPOC and 3 female staff members (out of 4 in total).

In winter 2021, Political Science held a 3-part (90 min each) workshop on 'Indigenizing the Curriculum'.
The department provides honorarium funds to any instructor that wants to invite a BIPOC speaker into their undergrad classroom.
The department co-created a first-year course on Politics and Social Justice (POL116) that has EDI at its core. This course can be taught by any Political Science faculty member, and it is now offered each semester.
In 2025-2026, the department will launch a new Certificate Politics, Law, and Social Justice where POL 116 is the gateway first-year course.

Last updated August 2025