Would Einstein be hired at UCLA today?
Article here. Excerpt:
'If Albert Einstein applied for a professorship at UCLA today, would he be hired? The answer is not clear. Starting this fall, all faculty applicants to UCLA must document their contributions to “equity, diversity and inclusion.” (Next year, existing UCLA faculty will also have to submit an “equity, diversity and inclusion statement” in order to be considered for promotion, following the lead of five other UC campuses.) The mandatory statements will be credited in the same manner as the rest of an applicant’s portfolio, according to UCLA’s equity, diversity and inclusion office.
A contemporary Einstein may not meet the suggested evaluation criteria. Would his “job talk” — a presentation of one’s scholarly accomplishments — reflect his contributions to equity, diversity and inclusion? Unlikely. Would his research show, in the words of the evaluation template, the “potential to understand the barriers facing women and racial/ethnic minorities?” Also unlikely. Would he have participated in “service that applies up-to-date knowledge to problems, issues and concerns of groups historically underrepresented in higher education?” Sadly, he may have been focusing on the theory of general relativity instead. What about “utilizing pedagogies addressing different learning styles” or demonstrating the ability to “effectively teach and attract students from underrepresented communities”? Again, not at all guaranteed.'
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He also wasn't hirable in 1910...
... but for diff reasons from his sex and color. He was the only man to graduate from his uni with a PhD but without a recommendation for a faculty position. His elders agreed he was a gifted, maybe ingenious mathemetician and physicist, but he was also "unmanageable". Albert rarely did his assigned work. He would be assigned a proof or whatnot then turn in something else entirely. His stuff was always brilliant and usu. correct but not what was assigned.
Fearing he wouldn't teach assigned curricula, his elders minted him a PhD but deprecated him as a professorial type.
The rest is history. Not much later he penned three papers that would overturn millenia of physics and revolutionize human understanding about the nature of physical reality.
The issue here though is WHY would Einstein not get the job. For being not cut out for academia? Or for being a) white and b) male?