The College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) reaffirms its commitment to opportunity and access with a newly created high-level appointment.

Kishi Animashaun Ducre, associate professor of African American studies (AAS), is the college’s inaugural associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion. She will use her new role to further an intellectual climate of dignity and respect.

“One of the college's great strengths is attracting, retaining and engaging people from different backgrounds and culture, and with different values and perspectives,” says Ducre, who joined the AAS faculty in 2005. “I want to promote an environment in which everyone’s contributions enable us to fulfill our liberal arts mission. It is a responsibility I do not take lightly.”

A&S Dean Karin Ruhlandt is excited to welcome Ducre to her senior-management team. “Kishi is an inspired leader, working to ensure there is understanding and respect between all people. I cannot think of anyone better suited to advance transformation and excellence across the college," she says.

As a teacher-scholar, Ducre is interested in how social categories—ethnicity, race, class, gender, sexuality, privilege, power—intersect with one another and are constructed, maintained and challenged. She says that A&S, with its wide academic breadth and focus on intellectual fearlessness, encourages deep dialogue about equity and inclusion.

Ducre compares herself to a chief diversity officer—someone who advocates for underrepresented students, faculty and staff: "Our nation has yet to reconcile with our oppressive past, and the results of that unfinished project can be seen here and at universities across the country. I want to foster a new era of authentic dialogue and inclusion."

A prolific writer, Ducre is the author of “A Place We Call Home: Gender, Race and Justice in Syracuse” (Syracuse University Press, 2013) and co-editor of “Addressing Environmental and Food Justice toward Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline Poisoning and Imprisoning Youth” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). She also has published numerous articles and book chapters, organized and presented at national and international conferences, and curated multiple photography exhibits.

Her honors and awards include a 2011 Fulbright fellowship at The University of West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as a major grant from the Ford Foundation to study gender and environmental justice in Central New York with fellow principal investigator and AAS professor Linda Carty.

Earlier this year, Ducre directed the Center for Social Justice and Civil Liberties at Riverside City College in Los Angeles.

She earned a Ph.D. in environmental justice from the University of Michigan.