Loyola SOC: Our Anti-Racism Imperative

October 16, 2020

It is the mission of Loyola University Chicago’s School of Communication to build upon the highest educational values while looking critically at those values and ourselves in the tradition of the Jesuit Examen.  

As a school dedicated to the ethics, science, and art of communication, we commit to examining our impact on society and exerting our power to eradicate racism. This is our anti-racism imperative.  

The School of Communication acknowledges that historically, the academic field of communication has been an accomplice in systems of intersectional oppression. This includes prioritizing the views and scholarship of white, Christian, straight men and those who benefit from any of these systems, insufficiently challenging anti-Black racism, and keeping invisible or marginalizing the contributions of people of color, women, and the LGTBQIA+ community. This carries with it a preference for one dominant style of teaching, writing, and argumentative logic, which can be described as Western, European-based.  

We commit to correcting these wrongs by educating ourselves on our own history and studying the implicit biases that undergird practices that we presume to be “neutral,” when, in fact, they are based on power or a dominant culture, and socially sanctioned as “most valuable.”  

To that end, we commit to hiring and supporting the growth of marginalized scholars; and to assuring that the criteria we use to evaluate faculty scholarship and pedagogy, as well as student work, are equitable and just.  

We pledge to provide an environment that honors the unique lived experience of all SOC students, faculty, and staff, supporting their intellectual and personal growth, professional aspirations, and contributions to society.