The University of Connecticut Department of English—faculty, staff, and students—seeks to foster diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice among all members of our community. We aim to widen the scope of our field and always challenge ourselves to mitigate inequalities through our teaching, research, service, events, and hiring. We recognize that English, like other disciplines, has historically emerged from colonialism and imperialism and contributed to existing inequities by privileging some voices and perspectives at the expense of others.

As a Department with a presence across all five campuses at UConn, a land-grant institution, we also have a special responsibility to acknowledge our location within the ancestral territories of Indigenous nations, including but not limited to the Eastern Pequot, Golden Hill Paugussett, Lenape Peoples, Mashantucket Pequot, Mohegan, Nipmuc, Schaghticoke, and Siwok.

We are committed to fostering interdisciplinary, transnational, and intersectional work across critical race and Indigenous studies, postcolonial studies, gender and queer studies, and disability studies. We oppose all forms of censorship designed to oppress and foster hatred. We strive to promote an ethics of care and create an environment free from all forms of harassment, intimidation, sexual misconduct, exclusion, and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, class, age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, neurodiversity, creed, philosophy, and citizenship or immigration status. However, we recognize that we have much to learn. We pledge to engage in self-criticism and self-reflection as we work toward these goals.