Gender Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Academia: A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Transformation

Institutional focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion affects all parts of higher education management. Gender Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Academia: A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Transformation scrutinises the conceptual framework for diversity, equity, and inclusion actions in academia to facilitate research-based and critically reflected decisions in higher education management.

The book contains 24 chapters, each focused on one of 24 fundamental concepts that are essential for identifying, understanding, and implementing organizational changes and counteracting unjustified disadvantages faced by women and members of other gender minorities in academia, preceded by an introductory binding chapter. The book also discusses concepts directed towards solutions, such as affirmative action and feminist pedagogies, and overcomes the traditional binary approach on gender by incorporating specific challenges faced by LGBTQ+ and transgender staff and students.

Gender Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Academia will be key reading for academics in Gender Studies and Education Studies, while also serving as a vital resource for individual consumers working in or preparing to enter leadership positions in higher education.

Melina Duarte is associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and project coordinator at the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research at UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Romssa/Tromsø). Her research interests centre on diversity integration and the inclusion of minorities, focusing primarily on migration and gender. Duarte is the leader of the FemPhil research group at UiT and coordinates the PRESTIGE Project: Gender Balance in Research Leadership (RCN 281862/2020–2023) and the IMPLISITT Project (RCN 321031/2022–2023).

Katrin Losleben is professor at the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research, UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Romssa/Tromsø). She is a musicology, literature, and media scholar and is invested in feminist, queer, and postcolonial theory. Her research interests include music culture and its institutions, sound studies, artistic research, and environmental humanities. Currently, Losleben is principal investigator of the project Arctic Auditories – Hydrospheres in the High North, leader of the concepts work package within the research and intervention project PRESTIGE: Gender Balance in Research Leadership, and member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Musicology.

Kjersti Fjørtoft is professor in philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and the head of the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research, UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Romssa/Tromsø). Fjørtoft works within the fields of political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and ethics. Fjørtoft has worked with research ethics and data protection on several committees appointed by the government. She is currently head of the ethical council for the defence sector in Norway appointed by the Ministry of Defence.