RHCS Inclusivity Statement

The Department of Rhetoric and Communication Studies defines inclusivity as:

• Committing to an anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, anti-religious intolerance, anti-classist, and anti-ableist pedagogy and practice.
  
  
• Recognizing that forms of oppression are institutional, interconnected, overlapping, and that they affect people and the environment on many levels in their day-to-day lives, in public and in private.
  
  
• Dedicating ourselves to community engagement and justice, as ways to work within and with communities.
  
  
• Valuing diverse ways of knowing, including lived experiences as important sources of knowledge.
  
  
• Endeavoring to practice ethical listening and empathic communication, and recognizes that power relationships shape difference, disagreement, and conflict.
  
  
• Creating a sanctuary amidst these times of precarity, particularly for those who face oppression, marginalization, and discrimination.