one of the ones I find most concerning are the University of California diversity statements
I’m not sure I understand what you mean here. Do you think other universities are not requiring diversity statements from job applicants, or that the University of California is especially “concerning” in how it uses them? If it’s the latter, what do you think the University of California is doing that others aren’t? If the former, see this article from two years ago, which states:
Many more institutions are asking her to submit a statement with her application about how her work would advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The requests have appeared on advertisements for jobs at all kinds of colleges, from the largest research institutions to small teaching-focused campuses
(And it seems a safe bet that the trend has continued. See this search result for a quick sense of what universities currently have formal rubrics for evaluating diversity statements. I also checked a random open position (for a chemistry professor) at a university that didn’t show up in these results and found that it also requires a diversity statement: “Applicants should state in their cover letter how their teaching, research, service and/or life experiences have prepared them to advance Dartmouth’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”)
Another reason I think academia has been taken over by cancel culture is that I’ve read many news stories, blog posts, and the like about cancel culture in academia, and often scan their comment sections for contrary opinions, and have yet to see anyone chime to say that they’re an academic and cancel culture doesn’t exist at their institution (which I’d expect to see if it weren’t actually widespread), aside from some saying that it doesn’t exist as a way of defending it (i.e., that what’s happening is just people facing reasonable consequences for their speech acts and doesn’t count as cancel culture). I also tried to Google “cancel culture isn’t widespread in academia” in case someone wrote an article arguing that, but all the top relevant results are articles arguing that cancel culture is widespread in academia.
Curious if you have any evidence to the contrary, or just thought that I was making too strong a claim without backing it up myself.
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I’m not sure I understand what you mean here. Do you think other universities are not requiring diversity statements from job applicants, or that the University of California is especially “concerning” in how it uses them? If it’s the latter, what do you think the University of California is doing that others aren’t? If the former, see this article from two years ago, which states:
(And it seems a safe bet that the trend has continued. See this search result for a quick sense of what universities currently have formal rubrics for evaluating diversity statements. I also checked a random open position (for a chemistry professor) at a university that didn’t show up in these results and found that it also requires a diversity statement: “Applicants should state in their cover letter how their teaching, research, service and/or life experiences have prepared them to advance Dartmouth’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”)
Another reason I think academia has been taken over by cancel culture is that I’ve read many news stories, blog posts, and the like about cancel culture in academia, and often scan their comment sections for contrary opinions, and have yet to see anyone chime to say that they’re an academic and cancel culture doesn’t exist at their institution (which I’d expect to see if it weren’t actually widespread), aside from some saying that it doesn’t exist as a way of defending it (i.e., that what’s happening is just people facing reasonable consequences for their speech acts and doesn’t count as cancel culture). I also tried to Google “cancel culture isn’t widespread in academia” in case someone wrote an article arguing that, but all the top relevant results are articles arguing that cancel culture is widespread in academia.
Curious if you have any evidence to the contrary, or just thought that I was making too strong a claim without backing it up myself.