About

In early June 2020, members of our faculty recognized the need to become more intentionally involved in the international movement against racial injustice. After drafting a position statement announcing that intention over the summer, six faculty members and three graduate students formed the Decolonization Committee (De-Co) in Fall 2020. Our aim is to identify, challenge, and dismantle colonial structures and practices in our discipline, beginning with teaching, mentoring and scholarship in our department.

We, the members of the De-Co, add our voices to the global chorus calling for an end to historically entrenched and systemic forms of state-sanctioned violence targeting Black people. We understand this effort to be part of a broader imperative to forge a world wherein all people who are historically and currently subject to racialization have “the social, economic and political power to thrive ”[1]. De-Co endorses our professional organizations’ statements condemning racial injustice (e.g., the American Anthropological Association and Society for Applied Anthropology). We especially align with those professional organizations (the Association of Black Anthropologists and the American Association of Biological Anthropologists) that call for a disciplinary reckoning involving not only statements of support and agreement, but that also pledge to accept the ways that anthropology has been and continues to be implicated in the ideology and practices of white supremacy[2] and to act in ways that break those ties and forge an inclusive path for our profession[3].

We therefore commit to decolonization—to working toward a program, discipline, and academic community free from practices that perpetuate homogeneity and exclusivity in our membership and scholarship. Our work as a committee is to identify action steps and make recommendations for overturning the negative effects of white supremacy present in our daily interactions, operations, and policies. The areas in which we take these steps include but are not limited to instruction and evaluation; mentorship; recruitment and hiring; public engagement; and ongoing professional development and training. Through our efforts, we will move anthropology towards a higher expression of its purpose—a discipline whose membership, applied work, scholarship and leadership equitably reflects, values, and celebrates the entirety of humanity.

[1] 2020. “Black Lives Matter…What We Believe.” Black Lives Matter.
https://uca.edu/training/files/2020/09/black-Lives-Matter-Handout.pdf

[2] 2020. “ABA Statement Against Police Violence and Anti-Black Racism.” Association of Black Anthropologists, June 6, 2020. https://aba.americananthro.org/aba-statement-against-police-violence-and-anti-black-racism-3/

[3] 2020. “An Open Letter to Our Community in Response to Police Brutality Against African-Americans and a Call to Antiracist Action.” American Association of Biological Anthropologists (formerly American Association of Physical Anthropologists). June 5, 2020.
https://bioanth.org/about/position-statements/open-letter-our-community-response-police-brutality-against-african-americans-and-call-antiracist-action/