The Political Science Steering Committee is an academic student organization aimed at connecting professors and students in the political science department, and enhancing student experience. I had the chance to sit down with President Teresa Ng and Director of Publications Sofia Ruiz, to talk about their initiative to “Decolonize the Curriculum” in which they addressed the problems with diversity and inclusion in the political science department.
Teresa Ng says she had discussed issues with eurocentrism in her introductory political science classes, and that she had friends in other universities working to decolonize their curriculums. She felt that Hopkins could use a similar initiative, and set forth to make it happen.
She and the other members of the PSSC wrote a letter to the Political Science faculty to discuss two concerns about diversity which students called attention to during a Town Hall.
The first concern outlined in the letter is about the lack of diversity in the political science faculty. The PSSC explains that only 3 out of 31 faculty members “identify as being from under-represented minorities in America,” and that they have no information regarding LGBTQ+ representation. Additionally, they point out how this issues leads to problems in the quality of education for students, as there are many political science fields that are not represented by anyone in the department. As an example, they discuss how the lack of faculty specializing in South Asian politics led to the inability of the committee to have an event about tensions at the India-Pakistan border.
The second issue they outline is about the curriculum itself. The PSSC says “Student noted that reading lists in most of their classes are predominantly white and male.” They note that while many students have beena ble to take courses on feminist and postcolonial perspectives, it is rather easy to finish the major without being exposed to them. They detail that this is important because exposure to these perspectives provide for a more rigorous curriculum, and that it helps to “erase subconscious biases that recognize politics or political science as primarily white/male endeavours.”
The PSSC hopes to work with the department to “diversity and decolonize both the department and its courses.” The PSSC letter is significant because it demonstrates the extent to which students are aware of the lack of diversity in the political science department. Students are recognizing how this lack of diversity is detrimental to their education, and how working to decolonize the department will allow them to be better students as well as better people in the long run.