Nicholas Henriksen

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are principles that guide my work as a scholar, instructor, and member of the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor communities. Currently, I am promoting gender inclusion for students by advocating for the intentional recognition of gender identity in our courses, especially in my role as Associate Chair of Romance Languages & Literatures. Gender-diverse students face a major communication barrier because the Romance languages we teach employ a binary grammatical gender in their lexicons. Continuing to only instruct our students using the masculine/feminine designation creates the perception among gender non-conforming students that the Romance languages are exclusively for those who identify as male or female. To combat these inequities, I co-founded my department’s Gender Diversity Committee (https://lsa.umich.edu/rll/gender-diversity-committee.html). During the 2022-2023 academic year I additionally received a New Initiatives/New Instruction (NINI) grant entitled “Integrating gender-diverse language into the Romance curriculum,” which involves a vast curricular update with respect to gender identity in our courses. Additionally, I collaborate with Michigan’s ADVANCE Program and am developing a resource kit that can be easily utilized to enhance understanding of gender identity, as well as to offer recommendations for how to integrate gender-diverse language into a variety of English-language academic and professional contexts.