USC Students Demand Change from POIR.
To the University of Southern California’s Department of Political Science and International Relations,
We, the students of Political Science and International Relations, are writing this letter to bring to your attention the failure of the USC POIR department to provide an education and foster an environment that: 1) accurately reflects the current state of international politics, 2) addresses the major historical inequalities within our discipline, and 3) provides open communication between students and faculty. The following letter outlines our grievances with the institution that serves us and offers short and long term solutions to implementing an education that equips us to be the global scholars of the future.
We encourage the POIR faculty to work with us to seek mechanisms that foster a safe, inclusive, and diverse environment for the entire university. To this end, we believe the steps and initiatives outlined here would be a start to making this program more inclusive and accessible to marginalized communities and students. We also stand in solidarity with the BIPOC student alliance and their demands. A list of 19 demands to be carried out in a timely manner and without hesitation can be found here.
CURRICULUM
We believe that we are receiving an outdated, Eurocentric education, and as such, we feel unprepared to be “the leading scholars who are competitive in both the academic and non-academic job markets.” While the Department claims to provide a curriculum that reflects the intricacies of the current state of the world, the course list has historically favored Eurocentric classes and topics. In order to be global scholars, our education must be unbiased and integrate scholarship from women, international and minority perspectives across different issue areas and regions of IR. We do not ask to erase history, but rather present a more authentic reality. Essential non-European histories and cultures have been neglected for far too long and, for the sake of our education, must be taught adequately.
This can be seen particularly within the International Politics and Security Studies and Culture, Gender and Global Society course requirements, as they promote one-dimensional analyses on non-white countries, perpetuating the idea of these countries as being poverty-stricken and conflict-prone. For example, courses pertaining to conflict and security studies almost exclusively focus on the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, furthering the misconceptions of countries within these regions as only associated with these concepts. POIR portrays non-white countries as the sole perpetrators of war, violence and extreme poverty. This is only further exemplified by the IR regional studies requirements. There are only five regions available for students to focus their studies on within this requirement: “Europe;” “Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia;” “Latin America;” the “Middle East and Africa;” or “Pacific Rim.” There are a total of 27 classes offered within the “Europe” regional focus, 10 within the “Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia” regional focus, 12 within the “Middle East and Africa” regional focus, 18 within the “Latin America” regional focus and 26 within the “Pacific Rim regional focus.” While the “Europe” regional focus and the “Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia” regional focus provide a comprehensive list of courses that allow students to learn about the regions, the latter three regional focuses do not. Out of the 12 courses available within the “Middle East and Africa” regional focus, only one course is offered explicitly focused on Africa (IR 367). There are 18 classes focused on “Latin America” with Mexico being the only country explicitly referenced. The curriculum fails to offer a single course specifically on a country from Central and South America. The “Pacific Rim” regional focus fails to distinguish the differences between South and East Asia. The majority of courses focus on East Asia. There is only one course that specifically examines South Asia (IR 361) and only three courses that specifically look at Southeast Asia (IR 361, POSC 352, ANTH 323). The only countries explicitly mentioned within this regional focus are those located in East Asia: China, Japan and Korea. The IR Regional Focus requirement fails to properly analyze individual regions outside of Europe and Eurasia. We hope to work with faculty to redistribute the courses to be more representative.
DEMANDS
1. POIR must pressure the Dornsife Study Abroad programs to foster a truly global education outside of white countries.
2. Syllabi task force created in Fall 2020 to review Spring 2020 classes. Data outlining existing inequities in curriculum is outlined here.
3. IR 210, 211, 212, 213 and POSC 100, 110, 120, 130 should be under review to include both underrepresented voices and those critical of the current state of affairs. These classes must reflect to the extent race and colonialism has molded the world of IR and use accurate language in describing countries and regions.
LACK OF DIVERSITY WITHIN POIR
Hiring faculty is a long term process. In the future, we expect that individuals with more diverse backgrounds will be brought into the classroom in order to foster a more inclusive learning environment cognizant of the aforementioned biases in our field. The current lack of diversity in the department translates directly into what we are taught and how we are taught. Students have a multitude of passions—and professors act as mentors in exploring new fields. With such a focus on Europe, there leaves little room for the mentorship of students who wish to venture into studies focused on other parts of the world. This translates into a lack of leadership in promoting scholarship and study abroad opportunities that attempt to introduce students to new experiences and diverse ways of thinking. For example, there is a lack of faculty studying African countries, which also translates into very few students being interested in the region, students continuing to understand Africa as a monolith, and very few people applying to opportunities such as the Bender-Schneidman Africa Award.
DEMANDS
4. Mandatory diversity training for all staff to be implemented in Fall 2020.
5. Mandatory professor and T.A. personalized workshop on allyship and training on being a mandatory reporter.
6. Actively hiring more women and POC professors by 2025 (tenure, non-tenure, etc.).
7. Actively hiring more professors who specialize in non-Europe and non-Asia Pacific regions by 2025.
8. During Fall 2020, POIR must publish diversity statistics of professors within the department (women, BIPOC, issue area/region).
9.Fair pay and wages for Associate professors, TAs, etc.
ADDRESSING INEQUALITIES BETWEEN STUDENTS
From discussions with students in the POIR department, we have found that many structures within the department have served to reinforce inequalities between students and the inaccessibility of certain academic and professional spaces. While research and internships are promoted within the department, bearing the cost of these experiences is often not possible for most students on campus. For instance, if a program has tuition and room and board fees, POIR will often only cover room and board, making extraordinary experiences such as PWPs, Maymesters, and study abroad opportunities available to only the most privileged students. Additionally, when compared to other fields of study, International Relations and Political Science is a discipline in which professional and academic opportunities, such as research assistantships and internships, are frequently unpaid. This has led to systemically disadvantaging and disenfranchising low-income, first generation and minority students in the field because competitive and prestigious opportunities are available only to those who have the socio-economic status that permits them to work for free. Losing out on such opportunities sets back already underrepresented groups of students professionally and impacts not only the trajectory of their college career, but also their post-graduate careers. Therefore, POIR must actively help low-income students in order to truly change the demographics of the field. USC cannot mandate organizations to have paid internships but the institution can provide more need-based stipends to a variety of internships and build long term relationships with organizations that may be able to fund students. USC must use its power and privilege to pressure these institutions to pay their interns as well.
DEMANDS
10. POIR must work in conjunction with AHF to formalize and build a relationship with prominent organizations in the field of political science and international relations.
11. POIR professors should share real-world resources (i.e. scholarships, jobs and internships) about the topic they teach for students surrounding the area they reach so students are aware of the opportunity.
12. Current scholarships for internships and research should be changed to need-based versus merit-based and/or add additional need-based scholarships for Summer 2021.
13. Exert pressure on private sector and government to pay interns in the field of POSC/IR for Spring 2021 and future internships.
14. Establish a fall internship stipend for both need and merit based.
COMMUNICATION
Presently, there is no formalized communication between the POIR department and its student body. The department has merged without a single forum for discussion or opportunity for students to ask questions about the changes. We ask that POIR begin conversations with the newly formed Political Science and International Relations Undergraduate Assembly to integrate student voices into the Administration’s decisions.
DEMANDS
15. To continue necessary conversations, there will be a reformation of the Political Science and International Relations Undergraduate Assembly to be the voice of all POIR students.
16. Begin undergraduate representation at POIR faculty meetings; publicly available read-outs of faculty meetings and decisions for Fall 2020.
17. Regularly communicate progress on all implemented policies and practices to the Assembly members.
18. Quarterly virtual town halls to address problems occurring in classes organized before the semester ends in Fall 2020.
19. Institutionalized anonymous forum where students can address concerns outside of the town hall.
CONCLUSION
What you teach, who teaches it, and how it is taught matters. We have outlined multiple demands for the department to move forward with. The current curriculum is not an accurate representation of the current state or history of political science and international affairs. It is a disservice to teach students a fraction of what the field has to offer. This is not our job, but the department has failed to take action and act to improve. This is your call to action. As your students, what you do following your receipt of this letter affects our lives and the future students of POIR. Future USC students will read this letter, and we demand that for them—and for us—you take action to address these issues.
An account of student experiences can be found here for your review.
Please forward all responses to dpedelta@usc.com. We look forward to a response from you within a week.
Sincerely, Delta Phi Epsilon Executive Board and committed signatories
Works Cited
Bhambra, Gurminder K, et al. “Why Is Mainstream International Relations Blind to Racism?” Foreign Policy, The Slate Group, 3 July 2020, foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/03/why-is-mainstream-international-relations-ir-blind-to-racism-colonialism/.Primary Data Collection. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G1EGhGhyFlzhBz-hFGTVaq5A3kUmJbeC4GwQNB2NDso/edit?usp=sharing
USC Dornsife. “Political Science and International Relations: Program Learning Objectives” 2020, https://dornsife.usc.edu/poir/program-learning-objectives/
USC IR Advisement Office. “International Relations Fields” 2015, https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/32/docs/IR_FIELDS_Starting_Fall_2015.pdf
USC. “USC Catalogue 2018-2019: International Relations (BA)” 2020, https://catalogue.usc.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=8&poid=7504&returnto=2249
Zvobgo, Loken. “Why Race Matters in International Relations” Foreign Policy, The Slate Group, 19 June 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/19/why-race-matters-international-relations-ir/