DEI’s Role in Reshaping Modern Organizations
Amsterdam Hybrid
Organization: GIRES-Global Institute for Research Education & Scholarship
DEI’s Role in Reshaping Modern Organizations: From the Humanities & Social Sciences to Domestic Businesses & Global Corporations.
1st International Conference
30 November-1 December 2024
( Sessions:2 days-Virtual Platform:5 days)
Thematic Approach
Diversity initiatives at colleges and companies are now facing unprecedented backlash. Why? In America alone, six states to date have laws on the books restricting or banning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies and many more are considering them. This problem has long been simmering in Western societies, but has flared up now irritated by the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel and the war against Hamas that has sparked heated debates about tolerance, inclusion and academic freedom.
In this GIRES conference we seek to investigate these issues that emphasize DEI from an international, comparative angle, thus making this event different from more narrowly restricted national events of this kind.
In a time of what appears to be increasing divisions, this controversy is a common Euro- American matter of public concern. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has insisted that equal rights, initiatives against racism, and fostering minority rights of all kinds must be a cornerstone of contemporary European institutions. But there is political, cultural, and traditional pushback in the old world as well as the new. Back in 1994 Christopher Hitchens identified DEI as “a regression to infantilism”; to me- me-mine-ism. By 2022 The Economist intervened with acute analysis of the ways in which workplace anti-discrimination programs often fail or backfire.
In all fairness, how does one analyze, use or reject DEI? Isn’t diversity here to stay? But how? Present as a modern means of social interaction, a constant complaint, or as a well- meaning relic from liberal times past?
Are we at a stage now where there is only vociferous debate? On the one hand don’t education and businesses where people of different nationalities and religions work for a living together have a mission to condition civic responsibility in diverse democracy? How else to deal with the inequities that have long disadvantaged society? How else to improve teamwork and productivity on a globlal scale of languages and cultures that need to communicate amid transnational variety to get the job done?
On the other hand hasn’t research shown that the greater the relative size of diversity- enforcing bureaucracy in educational or business organizations, the more discomfort members feel expressing their views in public conversations with each other or on social media? Has DEI fostered a new form of political commissars? According to Greg Lukianoff, CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression organization, since around 2014-17 about 200 US professors have lost their jobs due to the enforcement of DEI policies. Which is twice as many professors who were fired under the standards of McCarthyism.
Our organization, dedicated to interdisciplinarity, invites scholars from various fields including but not limited to philosophy, religion, theology, sociology, anthropology, history, literature, art, economics, geography, cultural and political studies along with representatives from think-tanks and organizations to contribute to the discussion and to debate issues.
Proposed Topics
Issues of this crisis are particular and universal. The subject opens up a treasury of pertinent questions:
-Freedom of Speech
-The Niceties of Civil Discourse
-Corporate Social Responsibility & Historical Accountability
-Racial & Gender Tolerance with Regard to Changing Customs
-The 21st century’s new populism (both communitarian and contrarian, progressive and conservative)
-Digital Humanities and DEI
-The Corporate Work Force in a Global Age
-DEI in Business & at University: Legal Liability versus Moral Responsibility
-The origins of today’s conflicts in the fertile roots of US & European legal reforms of the 1960s & 70s
such as the US Civil Rights act of 1964 or the 1971 “Manifesto of the 343” in France
-Economic models of Equity in Arts Funding
-Crisis of Whose Expression?
-The Impact pf Social & Political Turmoil on Artistic Creative Industries
-The Double-edged Sword of DEI: When Inclusion Efforts Divide
-Does DEI Include the Poor? If so, how so? If not, why not?
-DEI and the Hiring-Firing Polices of Companies and Schools
-Human Resources Departments and Union Practices
-DEI & Government Funding
-The Hemorrhaging of Borders Actual & Theoretical
-The “Foreigner” & Asylum-seeker: Hospitality or Hatred?
-The Case for Leadership figures or media outlets that defend or attack DEI
Proposed Formats (Lingua franca: English)
-Individual papers (GIRES will included it in a panel)
-Panels (up to 4 presentations-chaired by one of the presenters 0r appointed by GIRES)
-Roundtable presentations (chaired by one of the presenters 0r appointed by GIRES)
-Poster presentations
-Student presentations (one paper presented by up to 3 young scholars)
-Keynote speech (depending on the time availability)
-Pre-recorder presentation (s) (Asynchronous Platform)
-Pre-recorder presentation (s) (Synchronous-live- Sessions: live participation of presenter (s) during the Q&A sessions)
Publication Opportunity
The Organizing Committee and GIRES Press will publish the most powerful and dynamic presentations of the conference and include them
in a collective volume in the form of short articles and/or long essays. For more information please contact us
Live Sessions & Recording
All speakers are offered up to 30 minutes to present their work. All speakers have the option to have their presentations recorded (during live sessions) in HD quality.
The recordings will be uploaded to GIRES media for unlimited access and dissemination.
Physical Presence/In-person sessions
All participant who will attend the conference physically will have the option to have their presentations recorded.The recordings will be uploaded to GIRES media for unlimited access and dissemination.
Live Sessions Recording
All participants have the option to have their presentations recorded (during live sessions) in HD quality. The recordings will be uploaded to GIRES media for unlimited access and dissemination.
Asynchronous Options
All participants have the option to have their presentations (video/audio/text) uploaded to our Virtual Platform. All registered participants will have access to the material for 5 days.
Our proposed topics & formats are not restrictive and we invite additional germane ideas
Venue
Our primary goal, due to the various restrictions, is our event to take place VIRTUALLY
If the majority of the participants wishes to attend in person, we would gladly organize the conference in a HYBRID format in one of the universities we collaborate in our home, the Netherlands.
**Provisional Venues for Physical Presence: Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) or The University of Leiden, The Netherlands**
If the conference will take place in Hybrid format, the in-person presentations in The Netherlands and online presentations will co-exist in the program.
–The registration fees for physical presence include: Beverages and Refreshments during the Conference & Post Event Drinks after the close of the Conference–
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: 30 September 2024
ACCEPTANCE NOTIFICATION: 5 October 2024
CONFERENCE: 30 November-1 December 2024
ACCREDITATION: Official Certificate Issued by GIRES
For more information, submissions and registration options please visit:https://www.gires.org/activities/conferences/deis-role-in-reshaping-modern-organizations/
Contact Information
GIRES-GLOBAL INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH, EDUCATION & SCHOLARSHIP (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
www.gires.org (Dr. Konstantinos D. Karatzas-Director & Chloe Matias, Communication Officer)
https://www.gires.org/activities/conferences/deis-role-in-reshaping-modern-organizations/
Konstantinos Karatzas