Our Vision and Mission
Rooted in love, the vision of Harvard Divinity School Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging is of a restorative, anti-racist and anti-oppressive HDS and Harvard University and of a world healed of racism and oppression. Our mission is to provide holistic support and leadership to our school’s vibrant, pluralistic community that helps to create the conditions for advancing our vision and leads to transformation of HDS, Harvard, and the broader world.
The Common Read is the anchor initiative of the Reorientation and Common Conversation program. This year, we continue our engagement with the University’s Presidential Committee Report on the Legacy of Slavery at Harvard while collectively reading All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks. Community-wide gatherings provide additional reorientation around our shared HDS values and commitments–respect, dignity, mutual understanding, and trust–focusing particularly on dismantling and healing from racism and oppression.
The DIB Office facilitates this work through a heart-centered, restorative approach, operationalizing love through restorative justice principles and practices, which are inclusive of all backgrounds and faiths, including those who do not claim a faith tradition. In this spiritual work of eradicating racism and oppression and healing from their deep wounds, the circle holds us all.
Acknowledgment of Land and People:
Harvard University is located on the traditional and ancestral land of the Massachusett, the original inhabitants of what is now known as Boston and Cambridge. We pay respect to the people of the Massachusett Tribe, past and present, and honor the land itself which remains sacred to the Massachusett People.
The DIB Care Team is a small group of HDS community members composed of staff, students, and faculty creating a heart-centered space to embrace members of the HDS community in need of care when they have experienced DIB-related harm and/or have or are worried they have caused harm.
Join us in our heart-centered work of advancing our vision of a restorative, anti-racist and anti-oppressive HDS, Harvard, and of a world healed of racism and oppression by participating in a range of events, including our Reorientation and Common Conversation program, committee meetings, and University-wide programming facilitated through a restorative approach.
Learn more about the Racial Justice and Healing Committee, and Standing Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Harvard Divinity School.
Harvard University is committed to Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Explore more DIB work across Harvard.
Mailing address
Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging
14 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
Hours (academic year)
Monday-Friday, 9 am-5 pm
Email dib@hds.harvard.edu
Explore Harvard-Wide Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging resources on Harvard University’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging’s website.
