Our own Kristie Dotson has been appointed a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor. Dotson also has an appointment within the department of Afroamerican and African studies in LSA. 

"University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorships recognize and reward faculty for outstanding contributions to excellence through their commitments to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion."

Her appointment was approved by the Board of Regents on September 23rd, 2021. 

Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, Susan M. Collins says that “Dotson is an outstanding scholar with exceptional contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion through her research, teaching and service,” and that "Her commitment to inclusivity is reflected not only in her teaching, which encourages students to work together in the cause of knowledge production, but also in her considerable community service, which involves advocacy for incorporation of women of color on social and racial justice agendas. We are pleased to recognize her multifaceted contributions by naming her a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor.”

The five year appointment includes faculty fellow status at the National Center for Institutional Diversity where Dotson will spend at least a semester as a "facutly fellow in residence." 

Within the department, Dotson researches feminist philosophy and epistomology. "Her scholarship has prompted a reconsideration of the racial and sexist biases that undergird philosophy as an intellectual field, and generated a conceptual tool-kit for combatting overt and insidious racisms and forms of “othering.”' (University Record, 9.23.21)

Dotson uses DEI-informed, inclusive methods to teach philosophical concepts to a diverse range of students at the University. She shows how "epistemic exclusions" are created and "can be combated through intellectual work and collective praxis, above all, in relation to communities that have endured oppression and violence." (University Record) 

Congratulations, Kristie!

Full University Record Article