Author Archive for kathryn

The International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities and Nations seeks an editor, or team of editors, for a one-year term. This is an opportunity to make a significant contribution to what we believe is one of the leading journals in its field, the journal’s associated conference and, more broadly, the knowledge-community which the journal and conference seek to serve.

The roles of the editor are to:

• write an introduction for the Journal volume which would be included in the first issue for the year, and possibly on the website, the newsletter and other appropriate places or for the purposes of marketing and promotion.
• collate papers addressing a theme of the editor’s choosing into a book, to be launched at the conference at the completion of the editor’s term. The chapters may be drawn from submissions to the journal during this or recent years, and other material as considered appropriate.
• actively solicit manuscripts for the Journal from well-known and notable members of the community—these would could be refereed if the author wished, or regarded as ‘invited papers’.
• assist the Commissioning Editor with suggestions of supplementary peer reviewers for specific papers (and this will never be burdensome – note that the Commissioning Editor of the Journal finalizes a majority of the peer reviewer requirements based on thematic matching and ‘mutual obligation’ principles in which all author requested to review up to three other papers).
• promote the journal throughout their network and other associated networks.
• maintain regular communications with the community via periodical blog posts to the community website (which feeds automatically to our email newsletter, Facebook and Twitter).

The editor will be offered a complimentary electronic subscription to the Journal, free copies of the book which they edit, an electronic subscription to the book series as well as complimentary registrations to attend the conferences at the beginning and end of their term.

Qualifications

The Editor of the Journal must possess the following attributes:

• They will have successfully obtained higher degree, and have academic teaching and scholarly research experience in an area related to the subject matter of the Journal.
• They will have published in this or other comparable scholarly journals.

Applicants are asked to send:

1. a cover letter outlining their interest and relevant experience, and the ways in which you would propose to enhance the profile of the journal
2. a curriculum vitae
3. a special theme outline: a title with paragraph explanation.

Please send applications and supporting documentation to journals@ondiversity.com.

The deadline for applications is 26 September 2011.

Congratulations to Vivian de Klerk and Sarah Radloff, the winners of the International Award for Excellence in the area of diversity in organisations, communities and nations for their paper Measuring the Effect of Diversity Interventions at a South African Residential University.

Abstract: There have been many changes in post-apartheid South Africa since 1994, and one of the primary issues attracting attention within institutions of higher education has been diversity, as it pertains to social, cultural, linguistic, religious and racial differences. The challenge facing Universities has been to respond quickly to the national imperative to facilitate transformation, both in terms of day-to-day institutional practices as well as perceptions, attitudes and mindsets, which, while very elusive and invisible, are the most powerful determinants of the prospects for success in any efforts to achieve real change.

While diversity pervades all aspects of academic life, including student access and support, staff recruitment and retention, curriculum issues, research and scholarship and the social and learning environment on campus, this paper focuses on residence life at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape and reports on the extent to which recent interventions aimed at enhancing the acceptance of diversity have succeeded. After a description of the context and the nature of interventions which were organised to raise awareness of diversity, the paper reports on the results of a comprehensive survey which was carried out in the residences in 2007 and 2008, and focuses primarily on aspects of race and culture. The aim of the paper is two-fold: to describe a range of strategies which may be used to counteract prejudice in an institution, and to offer a method of measuring the effectiveness of these interventions, as a possible means of taking regular (if approximate) ‘readings’ of an institution’s ‘prejudice barometer’.