Diversity Statement

Ground Works is a platform founded on the ideas of inclusion and community. We are committed to undoing barriers to participation in Ground Works, and indeed to attempt a reversal of harmful long-standing structural exclusion.



Spring 2021

Ground Works promotes interdisciplinary, arts-inclusive research through rigorously peer-reviewed presentation of research outcomes, and through reflection and discussion on the processes that underlie those outcomes. The goal of Ground Works is to support a robust, critical community of practice, while documenting and sharing best practices for interdisciplinary collaboration. We maintain that bringing the practices and perspectives of the arts into conversation with those of other disciplines has powerful potential. The products of arts-integrated research can intertwine fresh approaches to complex situations with revelatory and provocative art-making. Furthermore, the processes associated with arts-integrated research can inspire those engaged in it to think more broadly and interact more empathetically.

While the impulses behind Ground Works are intellectually inclusive, it functions within systems that struggle with inherent structural exclusivity. Thus, we share that struggle. We recognize that diversity is intersectional, comprising race, ethnicity, religion, gender, social class, ability, and more. Further, we recognize that our world—at the intersection of American higher education, the arts, and scholarly publishing—has long made access difficult for some individuals, particularly people of color.

The Ground Works staff, Editorial Board, and Board are committed to undoing barriers to participation in Ground Works, and indeed to attempt a reversal of harmful long-standing structural exclusion. We will strive to welcome all who want to participate in Ground Works submission, peer review, publication, discussion, governance, and all other activities, and to be inclusive of diverse forms of knowledge creation.

To do this, we commit to the following action items:

  1. Identify BIPOC individuals and teams doing arts integrative research. Proactively include these researchers in all Ground Works activities, explicitly inviting project submission, participation in the editorial and review process, and participation in all Ground Works projects and initiatives such as special editions, programming for students, editorial mentorship initiatives, and webinars.

  2. Examine, with the aid of outside perspective, Ground Works formal and informal processes. Identify barriers to equitable participation, and then work to remove those barriers. Formal processes include those embedded in the platform, like submission and review, and those that influence leadership and participation, like Editorial Board recruitment.

    • Create and adopt a new process for recruitment to the Ground Works Editorial Board, prioritizing participation across race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and ability.

    Update Spring 2025: We have steadily broadened representation on both the Ground Works Editorial and Advisory Boards.

  3. Request demographic information from submitters, Editors, and peer reviewers. Tracking this information will enable us to quantify progress in correcting imbalances, and will contribute to our understanding of demographic representation, both actual and potential, in the world of arts-integrated research.

    Update Spring 2025: We have done this for three years, amassing data that we can now use to identify who engages with Ground Works already and whom we might intentionally invite.

Summer 2025

Since we initially published this statement in 2021, we have moved beyond the action items we set out then. Our efforts to “build a bigger tent,” one that can welcome more people inside, have included the following:

  • Centered disabled voices through the Reco(r)ding CripTech archive. Reco(r)ding CripTech documents the creative collaborative processes of the disabled artists in residence with the Leonardo CripTech Incubator.

  • Worked to erode barriers to publication for those who may not be familiar with scholarly publishing by actively welcoming pre-submission questions and conversation; prominently displayed a “Contact an Editor” link on the “For Submitters” page. The Editors mentor submitters as needed.

  • Lifted up community and indigenous knowledge through the special edition Creating Knowledge in Common, which features university/community partnerships.

  • Enabled communication to wider audiences by publishing an impact statement alongside new entries.

  • Counteracted implicit bias that may be present in our review process with a tailored workshop for our Editors.

  • Recognized the range of contributions to arts-integrated research with the implementation of CRediT-FAIR, an adaptation of the CRediT taxonomy.

There is a lot to be done, and we consider this the beginning. Please contact us via a2ru-editorgw@umich.edu with your questions, comments, and suggestions about this work.