The Letters: Institutional Lives and EDI

The Letters asks what do Equity, diversity, and inclusion–related letters do for the university as an institution and for those who are supposed to benefit from EDI initiatives? What do these letters tell us about institutionalized relationships, control, and creative resistance? Intimate and moving, this erudite collaboration among four publicly engaged scholars traces power as it weaves through institutional correspondence. In grappling with official claims of inclusion, the authors examine how EDI-related letters are used by the university to claim a mythical identity — of being equitable, inclusive, diverse, and decolonizing —while simultaneously warding off criticism. Focused on recuperating the labour and forms of life-writing that members of subordinated groups undertake in institutions, The Letters amplifies structurally marginalized voices to diagnose why and how EDI adversely impacts certain people and poignantly identifies creative ways to intervene against the neoliberal university.