Members of the Diversity, Decolonization, and the French Curriculum (DDFC) collective recognize the enduring legacies of European colonialism and its global manifestations. Through scholarship, curricular reform, and mutual aid, we commit to challenging systems of oppression (i.e. racism, (cis)sexism, ableism, zionism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, islamophobia, antisemitism, etc.) and radically reimagining the status quo. We reject:
We are committed to actively combatting the perpetuation of these inequalities through fostering equity, dismantling systemic barriers, promoting criticality, and supporting bodily autonomy and a right to self-definition.
We are not here to argue about the existence of these structures of oppression nor to deny the longstanding ways in which French Studies has been complicit in sustaining them. If your intention is to debate any of the guiding principles above, please find another space to do so.
We acknowledge that even the most deeply held ideals of Diversity and approaches to Decolonization have generated tensions in purpose, strategy, and outcome. We retain both terms in the name of our Collective because we believe each offers essential tools and perspectives for confronting oppression in our time. When engaged with a critical rather than performative lens, these guiding principles hold transformative potential to challenge inequity and help imagine more just futures for our field.
- Racialization: encompassing racism (including but not limited to anti-Asian, anti-Black, and anti-Palestinian sentiments), color biases, ethnic cleansing, settler colonial legacies, erasure of Indigenous cultures, and the reinforcement of white supremacy;
- Regimes of embodiment: dictating normative expectations around gender, sexuality, and ability that restrict possibilities and reify binaries, (cis)sexism, homophobia, and ableism;
- Regulation of modes of expression: manifested in language biases, discrimination based on accents, native speakerism, suppression of non-dominant languages, and emphasis on academic pedigree;
- Socio-economic disparities and hierarchies: established through distinctions in class, caste systems, educational hierarchies, and reflected in wealth gaps, burdens of debt, cycles of poverty, systemic precarity, competitive mindset driven by neoliberalism, the glorification of meritocracy, and the devaluation of certain skills;
- Systems of civic order: shaped by concepts like citizenship, nationalism, vulnerability linked to legal status, and the propagation of fear targeting minoritized communities.
We are committed to actively combatting the perpetuation of these inequalities through fostering equity, dismantling systemic barriers, promoting criticality, and supporting bodily autonomy and a right to self-definition.
We are not here to argue about the existence of these structures of oppression nor to deny the longstanding ways in which French Studies has been complicit in sustaining them. If your intention is to debate any of the guiding principles above, please find another space to do so.
We acknowledge that even the most deeply held ideals of Diversity and approaches to Decolonization have generated tensions in purpose, strategy, and outcome. We retain both terms in the name of our Collective because we believe each offers essential tools and perspectives for confronting oppression in our time. When engaged with a critical rather than performative lens, these guiding principles hold transformative potential to challenge inequity and help imagine more just futures for our field.
In keeping with this mission, we have composed a series of conference guidelines and affirmations.
