NLP Needs Diversity outside of ‘Diversity’

Joshua Tint


Abstract
This position paper argues that recent progress with diversity in NLP is disproportionately concentrated on a small number of areas surrounding fairness. We further argue that this is the result of a number of incentives, biases, and barriers which come together to disenfranchise marginalized researchers in non-fairness fields, or to move them into fairness-related fields. We substantiate our claims with an investigation into the demographics of NLP researchers by subfield, using our research to support a number of recommendations for ensuring that all areas within NLP can become more inclusive and equitable. In particular, we highlight the importance of breaking down feedback loops that reinforce disparities, and the need to address geographical and linguistic barriers that hinder participation in NLP research.
Anthology ID:
2025.findings-emnlp.1275
Volume:
Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2025
Month:
November
Year:
2025
Address:
Suzhou, China
Editors:
Christos Christodoulopoulos, Tanmoy Chakraborty, Carolyn Rose, Violet Peng
Venue:
Findings
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
23473–23479
Language:
URL:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/author-page-yu-wang-polytechnic/2025.findings-emnlp.1275/
DOI:
10.18653/v1/2025.findings-emnlp.1275
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Joshua Tint. 2025. NLP Needs Diversity outside of ‘Diversity’. In Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2025, pages 23473–23479, Suzhou, China. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
NLP Needs Diversity outside of ‘Diversity’ (Tint, Findings 2025)
Copy Citation:
PDF:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/author-page-yu-wang-polytechnic/2025.findings-emnlp.1275.pdf
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 2025.findings-emnlp.1275.checklist.pdf