We acknowledge that since the inception of our Society, a white racial frame has played a significant role in shaping discourse, teaching, and demographics. We deeply apologize to our BIPOC members, whom we have excluded in many ways, and to whom we have caused immeasurable pain. Although we cannot change the past, we are committed to the following. We encourage respectful dialogue among members, fostering the principles of diversity, inclusivity, and equitability that enable us to come together as scholars, teachers, and concerned individuals. We will continue to nourish freedom of expression, along with the collegiality that has always characterized our academic Society, even as we seek resolution of conflicts stemming from past and current inequities. The following commitments guide our ethics:
- We support scholarly and pedagogical research embracing a wide variety of approaches and engaging a broad audience, including scholars, listeners, composers, performers, teachers, and students.
- We strive for a diverse and inclusive membership. We are committed to providing equal opportunity for full participation in our professional community, and to addressing systemic inequities that have negatively affected our members, always in a climate of safety and mutual respect.
- We support freedom of inquiry and respect diverse points of view in all our activities.
- In our publications and other activities we are committed to maintaining the highest standards, including peer review and non-harassing, non-handicapping, antiracist, non-sexist, non-homophobic, and gender-neutral language. We recognize intellectual property rights in the dissemination of information.
- We seek fairness and honesty, and avoidance of bias and conflicts of interest, in evaluating the work of colleagues and students.
- We will continue to create guidelines in support of these values and practices, and share them with recommendations for their adoption by the wider academic community. Although our jurisdiction as a Society extends only to the activities of our Society, we reserve the right to voice our concerns publicly whenever our values are being threatened, and whenever our members are being harmed, by actions or policies occurring in the theory profession, academia as a whole, and beyond.