‘We’re talking about race!:’ communicative practices of chief diversity officers

ABSTRACT

This research focused on the framing of race, diversity, equity, and inclusion through the communicative practices of chief diversity officers (CDOs) working in U.S. institutions of higher education. Grounded in applied communication scholarship and co-cultural theory (Orbe, 1996), this project investigated how CDOs frame their campus work, and employ communicative practices in formal and informal settings to design institutional policies and build campus support for their efforts. To explore how CDOs accomplish their institutional work, in-depth interviews (N = 25) were conducted with higher education CDOs. CDOs employed communicative practices that confirmed the practices identified by Orbe (1998a), and engaged in a nuanced practice of reflexive questioning. Communicative practices were all strategically employed by CDOs to advance conversations about race, diversity, equity, and inclusion in order to move campus constituents to action in support of institutional changes to language, policies, and practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Chief diversity officers
• co-cultural theory
• communicative practices
• higher education
• race

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Tim Kuhn, Larry Frey, Michele Moses, Brenda J. Allen, Karen L. Ashcraft, Elizabeth K. Eger, and Gianmarc Grazioli for their generous feedback on a previous version of this manuscript. Thank you to the anonymous reviewers and to editors Mark Orbe and Jasmine Austin for their support and edits.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kristina Ruiz-Mesa

Kristina Ruiz-Mesa (Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder) is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies and the Basic Course Director for Oral Communication at California State University, Los Angeles. Her research is focused on studying pedagogical and organizational communication practices for increasing equity and inclusion in U.S. colleges and universities.