to a richer academic experience for all and to a broader production
of talent for society as a whole.^22 Panelists do consider the racial and
gender diversity of the awardees, but they also weigh their geograph-
ical location, the types of institutions where they teach (public/pri-
vate, elite/nonelite, colleges/research universities), and the range of
disciplines they hail from. Which kind of diversity is privileged from
case to case is an object of negotiation among panel members. As
shown in Table 6.1, around 34 percent of the interviewees mention
institutional diversity and disciplinary diversity as criteria of evalua-
tion, compared to only about 15 percent who mention ethno-racial
or gender diversity. Diversity in topics is also a popular criterion.
Only one respondent mentions geographic diversity.
Historians are most concerned with diversity in topics and disci-
plinary diversity (this may reflect noblesse oblige, given that histori-
ans reap the lion’s share of the awards and submit a very large num-
ber of proposals). Social scientists are the least concerned with these
two dimensions. Surprisingly, the humanists do not mention gender
diversity, while, as the table shows, this is a relatively strong factor
Considering Interdisciplinarity and Diversity / 213Table 6.1Percent of panelists per disciplinary cluster who mention
diversity as a criterion
Types of diversity
Humanities
(N=22)History
(N=20)Social sciences
(N=29)Total
(N=71)
Institutional 9 (41%) 8 (40%) 8 (28%) 25 (35%)
Disciplinary 7 (32%) 9 (45%) 8 (28%) 24 (34%)
Topics 6 (27%) 9 (45%) 5 (17%) 20 (28%)
Gender 0 (0%) 5 (25%) 6 (21%) 11 (15%)
Ethno-racial 4 (18%) 3 (15%) 3 (10%) 10 (14%)
Geographic 1 (5%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (1%)
Total 27 (1.2*) 34 (1.7) 30 (1.03) 91**
Note:A “mention” occurs when a criterion is used during the interview.
- This number represents the ratio of mention per panelist. While some respondents
mentioned each type of diversity more than once, their concern is registered only once for
each diversity type.
**Some panelists mentioned two types of diversity. Thus, the total number of mentions
is greater than the total number of panelists.