National Center for Institutional Diversity

Diversity Scholars Address COVID-19

Recent citations by diversity scholars who are addressing the impact of COVID-19. Click here to view the continuously updated list.

May 5, 2020 — Societal Impact
Kentaro Toyama, professor of information at the University of Michigan, warned about the potential consequences of contact tracing surveillance technology in Bridge. “The devil is in the details ... If we’re going to use these technologies, we need to be very careful that they’re constrained specifically for the purposes of the pandemic, and not used for anything else.”

May 11, 2020 — Health and Well-being
University of Michigan public health professors William Lopez and Paul Fleming shared their expertise with MLive on how and why the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting Hispanic communities. Lopez stated that Latinos are more likely to hold jobs deemed essential during the pandemic: "Those essential jobs are often face-to-face, and they’re seeing customers, interacting with folks, providing care in ways that other communities — sometimes white communities — are not.” Fleming added, “When people’s livelihoods don’t allow them to shelter in place or they have to shelter in place in a high-risk environment, they are going to be more severely affected.”

May 6, 2020 — Educational Impact
Preliminary survey results from the University of Exeter's Centre for Education and Youth suggest that teachers believe that the shift to remote learning will have a positive impact on their skills. But, 72% of teachers said school closures would have a negative impact on their wellbeing and safety. Anna Mountford-Zimdars told TES, “Our survey paints a picture of the current wellbeing of parents, guardians, children and teachers just a few weeks into this major change in children’s lives. We can see their views have changed rapidly, and this is likely to have an impact on education in the future."