DEI in the globalizing university

In this essay, I discuss the role of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) discourse and policy in relation to contemporary higher education, principally with reference to the situation in the United States. I will argue that this discourse has raised significant challenges for the pursuit of truth in the university, both by determining a priori the answers to important questions and by feeding into an increasing subordination of truth to other concerns in the functioning of the university. In making this argument, I consciously echo David Pan’s recent commentary in this journal on the way DEI in higher education is undermining liberal democracy. I will argue, however, that DEI is imbricated in our society far more deeply than Pan’s analysis allows, with a vital role as the schema used paradoxically to justify increasing economic inequality. The appropriate response to the subordination of truth to DEI then, on my account, is to leverage truth to attack DEI by exposing its insidious and self-occluding social function.