Hiring in 08-09?
Posted by annejacobson on October 31, 2008
Research has shown that even those seeking to hire a minority can end up preferring a member of the majority who is not as well qualified. Implicit bias may be a big culprit in the process. From feministphilosopher.wordpress.com comes a list of resources for dealing with implicit bias:
Here is a link to a short pamphlet from the Cornell ADVANCE Center on dealing with Implicit Bias http://advance.cornell.edu/resources/Reducing-Stereotyping-Biases-in-Hiring.pdf
Here is a link to a great pamphlet prepared by the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute at Wisconsin-Madison: http://wiseli.engr.wisc.edu/initiatives/hiring/BiasBrochure_2ndEd.pdf
Here is a long document that is pretty specific to the University of Wisconsin that has a thorough section on the impact of implicit bias and how to manage tendencies toward bias in searches. This one has all kinds of cool resources for chairs of search committees : http://wiseli.engr.wisc.edu/initiatives/hiring/SearchBook.pdf
I think the two big factors that reduce the impact of implicit bias are (1) know that it exists and (2) give yourself sufficient time to look at an applicant’s entire application package. Course releases for faculty who are active in a search committee is a pipe dream of mine.
