We as students, faculty, and staff of GradArt, coming from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds, culture, life experience, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, race, ethnicity, age, ability, political views, veteran status, and more, have come together to affirm our commitment to conducting ourselves towards our fellow colleagues, students, co-workers, and community-members with respect, care, curiosity, and open-mindedness. We want every member of our community to feel welcome, supported, and free to express their fullest selves.
We realize that many members of our community have experienced and may continue to experience harm that is historically rooted and deeply discriminatory, regardless of it being intentional or unintentional, especially in historically-white and privileged environments like Williams College and Williamstown. No member of our community should experience discrimination, harassment, exploitation, or intimidation. We pledge to hold each other accountable if we act in ways that are careless, cruel, or discriminatory towards our fellow community members. We will use our various and relative privileges to help those around us. We are all mutually responsible for each other’s ability to live well, learn, and thrive within the Graduate Program and its surrounding community.
We expect that members of our community will:
* Challenge our own assumptions about people from dissimilar backgrounds.
* Be active bystanders, speak up when potentially harmful or discourteous behavior is witnessed within the Graduate Program or in its surrounding community, and to speak up when others are disrespectful of an individual or group or class of people, even when members of that group are not present.
* Foster mutual curiosity across disciplinary boundaries and nurture the most capacious possible understanding of what art history can be, with all art forms celebrated and valued equally for study.
* Be respectful of professional, physical, and personal boundaries of all members of our community, in academic or professional contexts as well as living and working spaces.
* Be courteous in conversation and provide colleagues with chances to voice their thoughts.
* Ensure that criticism, when offered, is constructive, respectful, and aimed at creating productive discussion in the spirit of learning.
* Listen, participate, and engage in a practice of restorative dialogue when members of our community experience harm.