Full Name
Moderator: Mariam Lam
Job title
Vice Chancellor, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Affiliation/Organization
UC Riverside
Short Bio
Mariam Lam is Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer, and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Southeast Asian Studies in the Department of Comparative Literature and Languages with a Cooperating Faculty appointment in the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside.
In her administrative capacity, Lam heads a wide range of initiatives and committees that address DEI, partners with campus and community stakeholders to advance UCR’s diversity mission, and represents UCR at the systemwide, state and national levels. Lam served as Chair of the systemwide University of California Council of Vice Chancellors for Equity and Inclusion for two terms (2018-2022), Interim Assistant Dean of Students for Ethnic and Gender Programs (2020), Co-Chair of the Hispanic Serving Institution Task Force and Committee (2016-2022), and initiated HBCU and AANAPISI Committees for UCR. She convenes a Council of CDOs for the University Innovation Alliance, and is one of 21 institutional liaisons for the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities. She has worked on UC systemwide task forces/committees on anti-discrimination policies and processes, faculty diversification, postdoctoral diversity programs, gender recognition and lived name policy implementation, campus safety, and disability inclusion. She has led compliance and climate task forces, improved hiring processes, and developed an equity advisors program to address recruitment, retention and climate challenges. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in English, a Minor in Spanish, and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Comparative Literature with Certificates of Emphasis in Feminist Studies and Asian American Studies from UC Irvine.
Lam joined the UCR faculty in 2002 as a member of the Department of Comparative Literature and Languages with specialization in Southeast Asian studies, part of a Henry Luce Foundation and College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences initiative in Southeast Asian Studies. She is trained in comparative Asian and diasporic literatures, arts and cultures, postcolonial criticism, critical race and ethnic studies, globalization, gender and sexuality, translation, tourism, community politics, media and educational development, trauma and affect, minoritization and multiculturalism, la Francophonie, and academic disciplinarity. She was founding co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies for the University of California Press from 2005-2016, served as Director of Graduate Studies and Admissions Advisor for both Comparative Literature and the Southeast Asian Studies Interdisciplinary Research Program, later stepping into the position of Director of the Southeast Asian Studies Program from 2011-2016. As a faculty member, Lam has served as Vice Chair of the Academic Senate (2014-2016), Chair of the Committee on Committees and systemwide UCOC member (2012-2014), CHASS Executive Committee member (2009-2011), and in many other systemwide roles.
In her administrative capacity, Lam heads a wide range of initiatives and committees that address DEI, partners with campus and community stakeholders to advance UCR’s diversity mission, and represents UCR at the systemwide, state and national levels. Lam served as Chair of the systemwide University of California Council of Vice Chancellors for Equity and Inclusion for two terms (2018-2022), Interim Assistant Dean of Students for Ethnic and Gender Programs (2020), Co-Chair of the Hispanic Serving Institution Task Force and Committee (2016-2022), and initiated HBCU and AANAPISI Committees for UCR. She convenes a Council of CDOs for the University Innovation Alliance, and is one of 21 institutional liaisons for the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities. She has worked on UC systemwide task forces/committees on anti-discrimination policies and processes, faculty diversification, postdoctoral diversity programs, gender recognition and lived name policy implementation, campus safety, and disability inclusion. She has led compliance and climate task forces, improved hiring processes, and developed an equity advisors program to address recruitment, retention and climate challenges. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in English, a Minor in Spanish, and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Comparative Literature with Certificates of Emphasis in Feminist Studies and Asian American Studies from UC Irvine.
Lam joined the UCR faculty in 2002 as a member of the Department of Comparative Literature and Languages with specialization in Southeast Asian studies, part of a Henry Luce Foundation and College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences initiative in Southeast Asian Studies. She is trained in comparative Asian and diasporic literatures, arts and cultures, postcolonial criticism, critical race and ethnic studies, globalization, gender and sexuality, translation, tourism, community politics, media and educational development, trauma and affect, minoritization and multiculturalism, la Francophonie, and academic disciplinarity. She was founding co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies for the University of California Press from 2005-2016, served as Director of Graduate Studies and Admissions Advisor for both Comparative Literature and the Southeast Asian Studies Interdisciplinary Research Program, later stepping into the position of Director of the Southeast Asian Studies Program from 2011-2016. As a faculty member, Lam has served as Vice Chair of the Academic Senate (2014-2016), Chair of the Committee on Committees and systemwide UCOC member (2012-2014), CHASS Executive Committee member (2009-2011), and in many other systemwide roles.
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