Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Teaching Matters

This article examines the intersection of contingent faculty labor and institutional diversity on the student and faculty level of U.S. German Studies. Sara Ahmed's notion of "diversity as phenomenology" (2012, p. 173) provides a conceptual framework to show that active diversity work in the German classroom has a feedback effect and reveals how the contingentization of faculty labor undermines diversity on the student and faculty level. In three steps, the article draws on pertinent data to show how institutional superstructures become tangible through diversity work in the German classroom. Considering that German Studies continues to be the whitest world language in U.S. academia (Grawe, 2018; Hussar & Bailey, 2020; Murphy & Lee, 2019), the article proposes that German Studies ought to take a leading role in actively addressing the larger institutional structures that perpetuate white supremacy. It concludes with a proposal of four concrete steps for how German teachers and professional bodies can address systemic structures that exceed, yet directly impact German Studies.