Our Key Measures

The Gender and Diversity Office (hereafter GDO) is situated at the interface of research and administration in the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence. It ensures diversity, equity and inclusion at all structural levels of the Cluster and firmly inscribes critical diversity dimensions in all of the Cluster’s research agendas and activities. The GDO not only addresses the needs of individual researchers to promote equal opportunities and counterbalance disadvantages, but also scrutinises existing structures to situate individual needs in relation to broader systemic (in)equalities, so as to enable addressing changes in higher education policies. In addition, the GDO develops measures to embed intersectional and critical diversity perspectives as part of best practice in the implementation of the Cluster’s research agenda.

The GDO pursues its structural and research-related objectives through a variety of tools and measures, ranging from training in critical diversity literacy, regular lectures and workshops to the development and implementation of a coherent set of criteria in the Cluster’s hiring decisions and the internal allocation of funds. The GDO director works with the Gender and Diversity representatives at the African Cluster Centres to advance diversity, equity and inclusion as well as intersectional and critical diversity perspectives in research across all Cluster locations. As a rule, the GDO uses an intersectional grid to scrutinize researcher demographics in the Cluster and to identify arenas of action. To support Cluster members with children, the GDO offers childcare support measures on demand.