From our perspective, racial equity occurs when graduate programs reconfigure the structures, cultures, and the system in which they are embedded, to ensure historically marginalized communities have the opportunity to participate and thrive. This work is critically needed: histories of racialized exclusion from the academy mean that participation in doctoral education by Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color as well as and women and non-binary people of all backgrounds, has never matched their representation in the population. Disparate exclusion from graduate education limits individual opportunities, the health and evolution of the disciplines, and possibilities of reducing inequalities in society and the labor market. These are matters of power and justice, and we embrace them as such.
