JMU English upholds the dignity and recognizes the worth of all members of the JMU community, inclusive of race, ethnicity, embodiment, identity, background, and rank. Our department believes that learning a range of experiences, perspectives, and modes of literary expression leads to a fuller, richer, and more equitable understanding of human existence. JMU English equally values all scholars and the questions they bring to the discipline. Our department amplifies traditionally marginalized voices in our teaching, research and writing activities, in the events and projects we organize, and through the substantial support we give to WGSS, AAAD, LAXC, and related interdisciplinary programs. In addition to our recruitment activities, our teaching and mentoring, and our connections with our alumni, our research and creative endeavors, our service commitments to the University and the discipline, and our programming all contribute toward building a complex, inclusive, and evolving ethical sensibility of what it means, and what it has meant, to share a planet over time.