Publications
- Complementary Rather than Contradictory: Diversity and Excellence in Peer Review and Admissions in American Higher Education
- Download: PDF 123.71 KB
- by Lamont, Michèle; Moraes Da Silva, Graziella
- Diversity is largely accepted as a positive value in American society. Nevertheless, policies to
encourage diversity, e.g. affirmative action, language policies and legalising illegal immigrants, are
still largely disputed, and often understood as having contradictory and largely negative
consequences. The implementation of diversity is still seen as a threat to meritocracy, national
cohesion, and democracy. This paper analyses how excellence and diversity are discussed in two
academic decision-making processes: admission at two elite public universities and the
distribution of competitive research fellowships. We argue that excellence and diversity are not
alternative but additive considerations in the allocation of resources. The administrators and
academics we studied factor diversity in as an additional consideration when decisions are to be
made between applicants of roughly equal standing.
- Publication Type: Published Paper
- Publisher: 21st Century Society
- Published Date: February 2009
- Field of Interest: Global Issues
- Lamont, Michèle, and Graziella Moraes Da Silva. "Complementary Rather than Contradictory: Diversity and Excellence in Peer Review and Admissions in American Higher Education." In 21st Century Society: Journal of the Academy of Social Science 4, no. 1 (February 2009): 1-15.
