Collaborating with the American Economic Association, the school made clear that it is committed to ‘walking the walk’ of inclusivity
Budding economists who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community gathered at UC San Diego’s Park & Market event space from Aug. 5-7 for a conference sponsored by the American Economic Association, highlighting the school’s welcoming approach to scholars of all backgrounds.
Teevrat Garg, an associate professor at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS), spearheaded the effort to host this year’s event, which was designed for queer Ph.D. candidates studying economics.
“It provides an opportunity for grad students to see that it’s possible for economists to be happy and successful while being queer,” Garg said.
In addition to being a supportive environment, he said, the conference — which received additional funding from UC San Diego’s department of economics, the Division of Social Sciences and the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion — provided concrete opportunities for networking and professional development.
Garg served as a mentor at the first meeting of the conference, which was held last year at UC Berkeley. Even while attending that first conference, he began thinking of organizing it at UC San Diego in the future.
He said that when he proposed hosting the event, everyone — from Dean Caroline Freund to the leaders of GPS’ various research centers — supported it enthusiastically.
“Dean Freund was just such an incredible champion,” Garg said. “When I asked her for support to host the conference, I didn’t have to jump through hoops to make the case — I just sent her a short note, and she said, ‘Yeah, this is great!’”
Freund said that facilitating the conference was not just the right thing to do; in the long run, opening the door to researchers of all backgrounds will also help the economics discipline.
“Economists have a huge impact on government policies related to essential areas such as employment and health care,” she said. “Diverse views and experiences are therefore especially important to ensure a broad range of perspectives are captured. This conference aims to support the scholarship and careers of LGBTQ+ economists, with the added benefit that their success will feed back into better economic policy.”
The conference, now in its second year, is an opportunity for LGBTQ+ graduate students to network with their peers, receive guidance from supportive mentors, as well as to discuss the ways in which queer populations are represented in economic research.
The conference complemented other LGBTQ+ inclusion initiatives at GPS, including the student group QuIPS, which is facilitated by professor Jennifer Burney.
“There’s a lot of talk and discussion about expanding diversity and equity and inclusion in the economics profession,” Garg said. “But when it comes to these principles, GPS isn’t just talking the talk — it is walking the walk.”
