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Interrupting Bias in the Faculty Search Process Film and Guide

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Interrupting Bias in the Faculty Search Process: Film & Facilitation Guide

Excellence in Faculty Hiring

Recruiting excellent faculty is the ultimate goal of any department. Achieving excellence in faculty hiring requires careful attention to the entire faculty hiring process. Recruiting diverse faculty is a multi-step process where evaluation plays a major role. Ideally all candidates will be impartially evaluated on their abilities and potential. However, research repeatedly demonstrates that evaluation processes often underestimate the qualifications of people from historically underrepresented groups in higher education. By providing opportunities for search committee skill-building, faculty will be better equipped to identify subtle biases and engage their colleagues on assumptions of competence and fit.

The process of hiring candidates must change if we want outcomes that reproduce something other than the status quo. The “Interrupting Bias in the Faculty Search Process” film and facilitation guide has the potential to encourage conversations about how faculty candidates are evaluated and transform the hiring process for a more diverse faculty.

“Interrupting Bias in the Faculty Search Process” Film

This live action film features a faculty search committee debating candidate qualifications for an open position. Meant to be viewed in conjunction with a facilitated discussion on faculty evaluation, the goal is to help the audience:

  • Demystify subtle discrimination and identify biases that occur during evaluation of faculty and faculty candidates.
  • Examine assumptions of competence and best-fit.
  • Become change-agents in their departments and transform the hiring process.

Thus, the film and facilitation guide has the potential to encourage conversations about how faculty candidates are evaluated and  transform the hiring process for a more diverse faculty. 

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Four people sit around a table in an interview setting

Interrupting Bias Film and Facilitation Guide

Interested in facilitating a viewing of “Interrupting Bias in the Faculty Search Process”?.

Watch the FilmFacilitate a Viewing

Facilitation Materials

Facilitation Guidelines

This film is intended to be presented within the context of a carefully facilitated presentation on bias and shortcuts in the faculty search process, both of which lead to erroneous conclusions about the competence of faculty candidates from historically marginalized and underrepresented groups. The following resources will help guide your facilitated discussion about diversity in faculty hiring at colleges and universities. 

Supplemental Materials

Prepare your audience using the following handouts during a facilitated viewing.

About Us

This project was made possible by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. The grant funded the creation of a facilitation guide and the dissemination of the film and guide as a teaching tool to programs and universities across the country. The film was first shown at UW ADVANCE’s National Leadership Excellence for Academic Diversity Workshop in June 2009. This project was led by former UW ADVANCE Research Associate Coleen Carrigan (who is now an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies at California Polytechnic University) and UW ADVANCE Director Dr. Joyce Yen. 

Contact Us

Please feel free to contact us with your comments and/or questions at: advcic@uw.edu.