The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (EALC) upholds the right of all our members – including faculty, staff, and students – to learn and work to their fullest potential. As our community members hail from various backgrounds, we are committed to actively creating and sustaining a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment where everyone can feel they belong. EALC adheres to Harvard University’s non-discrimination policies for students and employees. We seek to create a department culture that does not impose obstacles and burdens on its members related to their gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration status, sexual orientation, religion, physical/mental ability, or socio-economic status.
Everyone in our community should act in a manner consistent with, and in support of, an environment where we can learn, teach, and research together, as well as interact socially and professionally free of discrimination and harassment. The department subscribes to the need to work for a deeper understanding across our differences and against the violence of racism and its nefarious effects, with a special though not exclusive responsibility regarding anti-Black and anti-Asian/Asian American racism.
The EALC community aspires to the following principles and practices. All our members have a role to play in upholding them:
- Building a welcoming, safe, diverse, inclusive, supportive, and productive environment.
- Engaging each other with collegiality, equity, and fairness.
- Promoting academic excellence, integrity, and honesty.
- Fostering open academic debate that is premised on mutual respect.
- Encouraging the pursuit of rigorous, scholarly explorations of the East Asian region in all its richness and complexity and in a global context.
[To read more about the EDIB committee and to view resources, please visit the EDIB homepage.]