Diversity Month

November is Diversity Month at the Geneva Graduate Institute

What is diversity? What does it mean to the individual? What does it mean for the collective? How is it constructed? How diversity is viewed and understood is, in itself, diverse. Every November, the Institute celebrates diversity, taking a deeper look into its different facets.

This year, our awareness month on diversity is part of a larger, year-long campaign dedicated to respect. To celebrate the diversity of our community here at the Institute, we gathered five words key to achieving respect, with your help. What do they mean to the community? Find out in this short video.

More info on the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Initiative.

upcoming events

Norma – A Quest for Justice

What Does Diversity Mean to You?

Affirmer la diversité, c’est reconnaître dans une égale dignité nos communautés et leurs formes variées de présence au monde. Affirmer la diversité, c’est militer pour que ces différentes formes de présence au monde puissent s’exprimer et s’épanouir. Enfin et peut-être surtout, affirmer la diversité, c’est démontrer sa valeur – qui ne se révèle finalement que lorsque la diversité devient rencontre et hybridité.

Marie-Laure Salles, directrice

La diversité est l’égale possibilité offerte à tous et toutes d’exister et de vivre librement avec ses spécificités au sein d’un monde "pluriversel". C’est reconnaître la multiplicité du « ego sum » en favorisant une réelle inclusion des singularités au sein de nos morphologies sociales. C’est valoriser l'apport de tous et toutes par-delà les logiques de hiérarchie, grâce à un décentrement qui permet d’apprécier la contribution intrinsèque de chacun et chacune.

Dêlidji Eric Degila, professeur de pratique de relations internationales

Diversity is similarity. Yes, it’s an oxymoron. Diversity is a singular act of seeing the self in ‘others,’ a simple act of recognising the self in the face of an ‘other.’ Diversity is dissolution: letting one become many and many braided into one. Diversity is a point of saturation, a dense singularity revealing infinite possibilities. To embrace diversity is to embrace oneself as one possible manifestation of a diverse Universe.

Aditya Bharadwaj, Professor, Anthropology and Sociology
Chair, Department of Anthropology and Sociology
Co-Director, Gender Centre

Diversity is a celebration of strength, openness, and the profound possibility of connection. It represents an embracing of each person’s story, background, and experience as essential to our shared understanding. Within diversity lies the richness of learning from one another—discovering that differences don’t divide but instead weave a stronger, more resilient community. It encourages the freedom to challenge assumptions, listen with empathy, and see the world through new perspectives.

Hafssa Kouskous, PhD Researcher in International History and Politics

Diversity is about promoting one's values (inherited or adopted) in a manner that does not denigrate or negate those of others. Beyond that, it's about seeking synergy between them in order to explore the strength that lies in their intermingling. It challenges us to transcend some preconceived notions and positions us all on the same pedestal. In a nutshell, every person counts and every difference contributes to the overall richness of the collective.

Sourou Aristide Djossou, Alumnus (MINT 2024)

As we think about diversity this month, let’s remember that diversity has weak and strong versions. In its weak form, bringing diversity is simply seeing a colour palette or different accents in the classroom. Such a weak version can co-exist with stereotyping and stigmatisation. We “include” those who we see as “different” in our classrooms but still assume and often contribute to reproducing their subordination. In its strong and more desirable version, diversity creates a space in which different perspectives and ways of seeing in the world can be learned. The strong version of diversity needs the active engagement of everyone and institutional practices that encourage horizontal exchanges. Only embracing this strong version of diversity will allow us to remain a truly excellent and increasingly global Institute.

Graziella Moraes Silva, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sociology
Co-Director of the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy

Diversity is the intrinsic expression of beauty. Think, for instance, of a swarm of parrots, a rainbow or butterflies. But beauty is also expressed in human diversity, in the multifaceted articulation of customs, languages, art, and foods. Today, however, as in the past, diversity has many enemies. Puritans, identitarians, nationalists and illiberals of all sorts long for a monochromatic world made up of certitudes and like-minded, homogenous groups. They are scared by alterity, difference and, ultimately, themselves. Humanity, however, may only express its full potential through the interplay of diverse worldviews, opinions and ways of thinking. To defend diversity, therefore, is to defend our shared human nature, what binds us all together, since this is the only way we can be meaningfully different. To put it in the words of Edward Said “Humanism is the only – I would go so far as saying the final – resistance we have against the inhuman practices and injustices that disfigure human history.

Dominic Eggel, Executive Director, Research Office

I view diversity as a pedagogical tool with which to address overlapping and interrelated systems of geographical, racial, gendered, classed, sexual, and ability-centred discrimination as well as affirmative processes of academic and public engagement, collaboration, and transformation around education and equity. I see diversity as an interactive process of un-learning and re-learning centring on the generative power of difference and bridging the gap between institutional commitments, theoretical interventions, and immediate life concerns.

Umut Yildirim, Assistant Professor, Anthropology and Sociology

Célébrer la diversité, c’est célébrer la différence, la rencontre, l’échange, la découverte, la curiosité, la beauté, l’ouverture mais aussi la remise en question. Célébrer la diversité, c’est accepter l’autre comme il est. Célébrer la diversité, c’est cultiver au quotidien des valeurs qui permettent de construire un monde plus juste et en paix.

Sophie Fleury, responsable de la communication institutionnelle et interne

Diversity is first and foremost about treating and respecting all people equally and accepting their opinions, positions, experiences and feelings. It is the creation of a cohesive and united world, despite many differences. It's like playing with colors when drawing - only a combination of several shades can create a coherent, beautiful and sophisticated picture. It seems to me that diversity is manifested in the best way at the Institute. It was the diversity that really surprised me and caught my eye when I first started teaching at the Institute, because I had students from all parts of the world in my course. By communicating with each other and talking about the peculiarities of their countries, students learn about new cultures, traditions, historical and political aspects directly from each other. This is diversity in action.

Daryna Abbakumova, Visiting Professor, Department of International law
SNSF Research Fellow, CCDP

Growing up as a white, straight, cis-gender European man, I once viewed diversity through the common lens of being an opportunity to learn and become more open-minded—in short, something to be celebrated without question. Only in recent years have generous and patient friends opened my eyes to the fact that, while diversity might look like a growth opportunity for me, for many of the people I thought of as personifying this “diversity”, it can actually be a painful experience. I now understand that, if not paired with serious efforts towards equity and inclusion, diversity only benefits a privileged few. Celebrating diversity in itself is not enough and can actually overshadow the challenges faced by many. For people like me in a place like the Institute, embracing diversity means upholding a duty to proactively contribute to making our community more equitable and inclusive for all—something which requires difficult conversations, serious introspection, self-education, a great deal of listening, changing our mindsets and behaviors, and speaking up when we recognize harm. It is the only way to make a mission of diversity sincere and meaningful.

Cyprien Fluzin, PhD candidate in International Law

Diversity colours my days and life by the many things I can see, admire, taste, smell, hear, touch, understand and learn. It allows us to reflect on our amazing differences and how we can reinforce and nurture these resources. Diversity is also respecting the other's culture, gender, look, religion, language, beliefs, opinion, habits and dreams. Diversity is my family and it teaches us so much!

Eliane Minassian, Head Student Wellbeing & Support Service

Diversity is a biological reality, and that therefore we should accept it to avoid conflict in society, and that if we do not, we go towards ever greater uniformization. In the real world, trying to impose uniformity creates violence, like the Taliban group which ban schools and universities for girls to destroy diversity by restricting or pressurizing on people to accept what they have misinterpretations from Islam in Afghanistan. In Islam like in other religions, peace is only possible if religious diversity is accepted. Diversity serves as an umbrella that protects individuals from the waves of selfhood.

Ahmad Reshad Attai, MINT Student, Second year, Conflict, Peace and Security Track

Diversity is at the heart of our existence. It is the essence of our world as it provides the basis for our uniqueness. We all belong to this diversity so fundamental to our life experience. If you were not different, how could I be I? If you were all like me – what a boring place that would be for all of us. Thank you Diversity!

Concepta Canale, Head of Student Services

COMMUNITY CELEBRATION DAY

On Monday 28 October, we celebrated the Institute’s diverse community with a gathering, musical performances, and fun booths sharing the wonderful things that bring us together.