The mission of the Interdisciplinary Center on the Science of Diversity (ICSD) is to promote academic, managerial and educational research and dialogue about the social impact of diversity. The center’s academic team is composed of scholars from across Northwestern University, with representation from the Kellogg School of Management, the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education and Social Policy, the School of Communication and the Medill School of Journalism.

The goal of the ICSD is to bring together scholars who share a common interest in the challenges and opportunities associated with social diversity. Diversity is becoming an increasingly commonplace reality of social life, as people of differing races, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, socioeconomic status, ideologies, thought worlds and cultures find themselves in interdependent relationships with one another. In these relationships, each person must rely on others’ knowledge, skills and perspectives to accomplish important goals. Understanding the barriers and opportunities associated with creating diverse social environments that are positive, sustainable settings for productive exchange is an objective worthy of rigorous scientific inquiry — and central to ICSD’s mission.

ICSD seeks to foster novel and integrative thinking about how best to create and sustain diverse social institutions, organizations and groups of all kinds. We look to disseminate our evidence-based research discoveries not only to the scholarly community but also to the managers, educators and policymakers who can use new scholarship in practical ways. This approach blends scientific theory with real-world practice to establish frameworks both rigorous and useful.

As a premiere academic institution with a wide range of scholars who study diversity-related issues, Northwestern University provides an excellent home base for the ICSD. Located in Cook County, Illinois (identified in the 2000 U.S. Census as the only high-diversity county between the eastern and western seaboards, north of a line stretching from North Carolina to New Mexico), Northwestern is well positioned geographically as well as intellectually for a vibrant center on diversity issues.