“Humbled, thrilled, determined and nervous all at once.”
This is how Matthew Guterl, a professor of Africana studies and American studies, described his reaction to being named the University’s vice president for diversity and inclusion.
Guterl’s appointment, where he will be tasked with overseeing Brown’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, was announced on Feb. 6 by President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20. He officially assumed the role this past Saturday.
Guterl now leads the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, formerly named the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity. The name change, which also took effect this past Saturday, reflects the office’s current operations given that it no longer oversees the University’s compliance and federal investigatory operations.
As Brown navigates rapidly shifting federal policies and unprecedented scrutiny concerning diversity and inclusion, The Herald talked with Guterl to learn more about his background and goals for his new role.
Guterl’s passion for diversity and inclusion stems from his upbringing in an “international, multiracial family,” he wrote in an email to The Herald.
He wrote that his parents adopted children from across the world. “What we now conceptualize as ‘diversity and inclusion’ was the foundational ethos of this experimental, integrated family,” Guterl wrote. “I am passionate about this work because I don’t really know any other way to be.”
Guterl graduated from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey with a bachelor’s degree in history, and went on to earn a PhD from Rutgers University in United States history.
Before becoming a professor at Brown, Guterl taught African-American studies at Indiana University in Bloomington and comparative ethnic studies at Washington State University. From 2001 to 2003, Guterl was a postdoctoral fellow at Brown in the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America.
Guterl returned to Brown in 2012 as the chair of the Department of American Studies, a role he held for nine years. From 2016 to 2022, he also served as the faculty co-chair of the University’s Diversity and Inclusion Oversight Board, which oversees the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan.
Guterl’s faculty appointments have “always been in interdisciplinary departments,” and he wrote that he enjoys the “challenge of writing, speaking and thinking” across disciplines.
For his new role as vice president, Guterl outlined two primary goals: to ensure that past diversity and inclusion successes remain “well understood and durable,” and to shape the future of the field in higher education, he wrote.
Accomplishing the latter goal, he added, will “require fearlessness, imagination and the support of the entire campus community.”
Amid recent executive actions targeting diversity, equity and inclusion, Guterl emphasized the importance of the University’s “ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion” and plans to support this commitment “in ways that are lawful, practical and community-driven.”
“This is an important moment — and this is an urgent job,” he added.
A large portion of his new role, he said, will involve collaborating with partners on and off campus, such as the Division of Campus Life, advisory boards from Tougaloo College and the Brown alumni community.
Many of Guterl’s colleagues expressed support for and confidence in his appointment.
Meredith Dawson, a member of the University’s Diversity and Inclusion Oversight Board, described Guterl as “kind, thoughtful (and) certainly passionate about Brown and the importance of a campus with diversity of experiences and perspective.”
Kiri Miller, the chair of the Department of American Studies, praised Guterl for his ability to “foster rigorous and mutually respectful discussion across traditional academic boundaries.”
Miller noted that one of Guterl’s primary strengths during his time as the former chair of the Department of American Studies was faculty recruiting. “Matt made the department a place where people wanted to be,” she said, “and not just people who look, sound or think like him. That’s a real credit to his leadership.”
Leticia Alvarado, an associate professor of American studies, wrote in an email to The Herald that she was “thrilled to learn Matt was appointed to serve in this important capacity at a moment when institutional commitments to diversity are being tested.”
For Isabella Clarke ’26, a former student of Guterl, he “consistently prioritizes and amplifies the voices of Black students, ensuring our perspectives remain at the forefront of class discussions,” she wrote in an email to The Herald.
“Matt brings an unmatched level of care and engagement to his students’ lives, deeply invested in their success both inside and outside the classroom,” she added.
Samah Hamid is a senior staff writer at the Herald. She is from Sharon, Massachusetts and plans to concentrate in Biology. In her free time, you can find her taking a nap, reading, or baking a sweet treat.
