Related Links
Curriculum
Each semester the curriculum for the pedagogy series is modified based on participants’ background and interests, current events, and facilitator experience. However, the topics covered and general structure of the series remains consistent across cohorts, and we draw from a common pool of resources to build the series for each new cohort. Below you can find a list of subjects we address. Clicking on any of them will take you to suggested readings for that area.
If you are using this as a resource for building your own curriculum, please note that some readings are listed in multiple categories. We recommend mixing and matching across subjects rather than assigning one block of reading all on the same topic. Finally, readings intentionally reflect a diversity of style, tone, and intended audience so you can build a curriculum appropriate to the composition of your group (e.g. different disciplines, institutional roles, or other aspects of identity).
These readings focus on class, and specifically how economic inequality affects students’ experiences in college. Topics covered include issues of identity, educational costs and debt burden, the classed nature of the ‘hidden curriculum,’ and approaches to advising and mentoring students who are first-generation and/or come from low-income families.
Linda Banks-Santilli, “First-Generation College Students Struggle With Divided Identities,” The Conversation, June 2, 2016.
Jennine Crucet, “Why first-generation students need mentors who get them,” PBS Newshour, September 20, 2016.
Robin DiAngelo, “My Class Didn’t Trump My Race: Using Oppression to Face Privilege,” Multicultural Perspectives 8.1, 2006.
Rana Foroohar, “This Mathemetician Says Big Data is Causing a ‘Silent Financial Crisis,’” Time Magazine, August 29, 2016.
bell hooks, “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 17, 2000.
Eric Hoover, Will Anyone Investigate Legacy Admissions? The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 3, 2017.
Laura Pappano, “First Generation Students Unite,” The New York Times, April 8, 2015.
Charlie Tyson, “The Hidden Curriculum,” Inside Higher Ed, August 4, 2014.
Mikhail Zinshteyn, “How to Help First-Generation Students Succeed,” The Atlantic, March 13, 2016.
Articles here focus on disability and accessibility. We take a broad approach to these topics, defining ableism as a system of hierarchy based on the pathologization of bodies and the promotion of an “ideal” human form that is inherently raced, classed, and gendered. Thus, our assigned readings include discussions of multiple forms of disability (physical but also cognitive and emotional) as well as related topics like fatphobia, eugenics, and transphobia. We follow the “social construction” model of disability, which analytically separates impairment from the label of “disabled.” For example, someone who uses a wheelchair might have an impairment that prevents them from standing or walking. It is their larger social context, however, that renders this impairment as a “disability,” by failing to create accessible buildings, walkways, and transit systems.
Lennard Davis, Introduction to The Disability Studies Reader, 1997.
Allie Grasgreen, “Dropping the Ball on Disabilities,” Inside Higher Ed, April 2, 2014.
Joyce Huff, “Access to the Sky: Airplane Seats and Fat Bodies as Contested Spaces,” The Fat Studies Reader, eds. Rothblum and Solovay, NYU Press (2009)
Alison Kafer, “A Future for Whom? Passing on Billboard Liberation,” in Feminist Queer Crip, Indiana University Press (2013)
Mia Mingus, Access Intimacy: The Missing Link, Leaving Evidence (blog), May 5, 2011.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Disability is Not a Deficit and Other Truths in an Ableist World, Bitch Media, March 28, 2017.
Tara Wood et al, Why We Dread Disability Myths, The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 24, 2017.
Kelly Wynn, “Anxiety is an Invalid Excuse,” Just Cut the Bullshit, October 20, 2016.
Articles here examine how institutions of higher education contribute to the (re)production of oppression and inequality. Topics addressed include institutional racism, disciplinary formations, and the troubling ways that knowledge production has contributed to racial, gendered, economic, and colonial violence. Sometimes faculty are tempted to view their disciplines as “neutral” and/or “objective” systems of knowledge, or to view education itself as an inherently noble pursuit that acts as a social equalizer. These readings dispel that view, and challenge faculty and administrators to undergo more critical examination of institutional policy, curriculum, and embedded disciplinary biases. We highly recommend choosing from these or other articles based on the composition of the group you are working with. For example faculty should be encouraged to read about the history of the particular discipline they were trained in, while administrators might be encouraged to read about institutions of higher education more broadly. Articles listed here address disciplines including computer science, philosophy, natural sciences (broadly), anthropology, history, sociology, and classics. Others address particular areas of institutional life, such as student affairs, “diversity workers,” admissions, and financial aid.
Sara Ahmed, “Evidence,” Feminist Killjoys (blog), July 12, 2016.
Julia Angwin, Facebook’s Secret Rules Protect White Men from Hate Speech but Not Black Children, Pro Publica, June 28, 2017.
Jess Auerbach, What a New University in Africa is Doing to Decolonise Social Sciences, The Conversation, May 13, 2017.
Brandon Byrd, “The Black Intellectual Tradition and the Myth of Objectivity,” African American Intellectual History Society, August 13, 2016.
Kate Crawford, “Artificial Intelligence’s White Guy Problem,” The New York Times, June 25, 2016.
Rana Foroohar, “This Mathemetician Says Big Data is Causing a ‘Silent Financial Crisis,’” Time Magazine, August 29, 2016.
Jay Garfield et al, “If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is,” The New York Times, May 11, 2016.
Stephen Jay Gould, “Introduction,” The Mismeasure of Man, Norton (1981)
Meena Krishnamurthy, An Open Letter to the Editors of the Journal of Political Philosophy; or How Black Scholarship Matters Too, Political Philosopher, May 24, 2017.
Lewis Maday-Travis, 6 Ways I Make My Science Class LGBTQ-Inclusive, GLSEN (blog), undated.
Irma McClaurin, “Brown and Black Giants of Science: Making the Invisible Visible (Part 1),” Insight News, March 21, 2016.
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, “Decolonizing Science Reading List,” Medium, April 25, 2015.
Dorothy Roberts, “Separating Racial Science from Racism,” Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century, New Press (2011)
Linda Tuhiwai Smith, “Colonizing Knowledges,” Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, Zed Books (1999)
Stephen Steinberg, “Decolonizing Sociology,” Stanford University Press blog, August 2016.
Eve Tuck: Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities on Damage-Centered Research, Harvard Educational Review 2009
Donna Zuckerberg, “How to Be a Good Classicist Under a Bad Emperor,” Eidolon, November 21, 2016.
Sarah Ahmed, “Women of Colour as Diversity Workers,” Feminist Killjoys, November 26, 2015.
Estela Bensimon, “Five Principles for Enacting Equity by Design,” Diversity & Democracy19, no. 1 (Winter 2016)
Dierdre Bowen, “Visibly Invisible: The Burden of Race and Gender for Female Students of Color Striving for an Academic Career in the Sciences,” in Presumed Incompetent: the Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia, eds. Muhs et al, Utah State University Press (2012)
Kathryn Campbell, “From the Editor: The Equity Imperative in Higher Education,”Diversity & Democracy19, no. 1 (Winter 2016)
Alison Kafer, “A Future for Whom? Passing on Billboard Liberation,” in Feminist Queer Crip, Indiana University Press (2013)
Vijay Kanagala et al, “A Framework for Understanding Latino/a Cultural Wealth,” Diversity & Democracy 19, no.1 (Winter, 2016)
Kyra, “How to Uphold White Supremacy by Focusing on Diversity and Inclusion,” Model View Culture, December 10, 2014.
Ana Martinez-Aleman, “Faculty Development for Educational Equity,” Diversity & Democracy19, no. 1 (Winter 2016)
Tia McNair, “The Time is Now: Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence,” Diversity & Democracy19, no. 1 (Winter 2016)
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Diversity is a Dangerous Setup, Medium, January 2018
Parul Sehgal, “The Profound Emptiness of Resilience,” New York Times Magazine, December 1, 2015.
The alt-right and other hate groups have found that they can gain a foothold for their ideas if they present their work under the banner of “free speech.” Now we have any number of violent, supremacist individuals and groups suppressing the rights and freedom of various minorities and then claiming that their “free speech” is being violated if they are hindered in any way. Articles in this newly added section break down how “free speech” relates to issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion. We hold that speech will never be truly “free” until all people are free and equal members of society.
Ulrich Baer, What ‘Snowflakes’ Get Right About Free Speech, The New York Times, April 24, 2017.
Hannah Dorsey, Fascism Has a Place on Campus. Do I? The Chicago Maroon, January 2018
John Patrick Leary, Bodies on the Gears at Middlebury, Inside Higher Ed, March 7, 2017
Alan Levinovitz, In Praise of Intolerance, Slate, March 20, 2017.
Kate Manne, When Free Speech Becomes a Political Weapon, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 13, 2015.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The ‘Free Speech’ Hypocrisy of Right-Wing Media, The New York Times, August 14, 2017.
Brett Beemyn et al, “Transgender Issues on College Campuses,” New Directions for Student Services, no. 111 (Fall 2005).
Allan Berube, “How Gay Stays White and What Kind of White it Stays,” Essays in Gay, Community, and Labor History, University of North Carolina (2011)
Joamette Gil, “Four Unique Struggles that Queer and Trans People of Color Have to Deal With,” Everyday Feminism, January 20, 2016.
Elizabeth Reis, “Pronoun Privilege,” The New York Times, September 25, 2016.
Dean Spade, “Their Laws Will Never Make Us Safer,” in Prisons Will Not Protect You, ed. Ryan Conrad, undated.
African American Policy Forum, “Structural Discrimination: The Unequal Opportunity Race” (video and talking points)
Sam Collins, “Black people aren’t making things up: the science behind ‘racial battle fatigue,’” Think Progress, June 19, 2015.
Claudia Garcia-Rojas, “The Long History of Presumed White Innocence and Black Guilt,” Bitch Media, December 4, 2014.
Marybeth Gasman, The Five Things No One Will Tell You About Why Colleges Don’t Hire More Faculty of Color, The Hechinger Report, September 20, 2016.
Adrienne Green, “The Cost of Balancing Academia and Racism,” The Atlantic, January 21, 2016.
Leslie Harris, The Long, Ugly History of Racism at American Universities, The New Republic, March, 2015
bell hooks, “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 17, 2000.
Robin Hughes, “10 Signs of Institutionalized Racism,” Diverse Issues in Higher Education, May 29, 2014.
Miracle Husband, Racial Battle Fatigue and the Black Student Affairs Professional in the Era of #BlackLivesMatter, The Vermont Connection (Higher Education Commons), 2016
Ibrahim Karkouti, The Role of Student Affairs Practitioners in Improving Campus Racial Climate: A Case Study, College Student Journal, 2015
Irma McClaurin, “Brown and Black Giants of Science: Making the Invisible Visible (Part 1),” Insight News, March 21, 2016.
Yareliz Elena Mendez-Zamora, “Surviving Institutions That Weren’t Created For You,” The Huffington Post, August 1, 2016.
Malcolm-Aime Musoni, “Stop Saying N***a If You’re Not Black,” The Huffington Post, September 26, 2016.
Claude Steele, “Race and the Schooling of Black Americans,” The Atlantic, April 1992.
Dafina-Lazarus Stewart, Diversity and the Language of Appeasement, Inside Higher Ed, March 30, 2017.
Lawrence Ware, “How to Survive, Be Safe and Thrive at a Predominantly White Institution,” The Root, August 8, 2016; and “How My Story on Black Students Surviving PWIs Led to Death Threats,” The Root, August 15, 2016.
Warren Waren, “Comparing Oscar Nominations with Higher Education Faculty,” Racism Review, January 26, 2016.
Patricia Hill Collins, “Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection,” inWomen’s Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings, ed. Susan Shaw and Janet Lee (Oregon State University, 2004)
Kimberle Crenshaw, “Why Intersectionality Can’t Wait,”The Washington Post, September 24, 2015.
Jameelah Jones, “Throwing the Rock and Hiding Your Hand: White Women and a Revisiting of Intersectionality,” Medium, September 20, 2016.
Yareliz Elena Mendez-Zamora, “Surviving Institutions That Weren’t Created For You,” The Huffington Post, August 1, 2016.
Bobbie Porter, “Developing an Intersectional Framework for Racially Inclusive LGBTQ Programming,” Diversity and Democracy 19, no. 1 (Winter 2016)
Gina Ulysse, “Pedagogies of Belonging,”The Huffington Post, December 7, 2015.
Jamie Utt, ‘We’re All Just Different!’ How Intersectionality is Being Colonized by White People, Thinking Race blog, April 24, 2017.
Articles in the “pedagogies” section are about - you guessed it! - centering equity in your teaching, advising, and mentoring. Also included are first-person testimonials about experiences of marginalization in higher education and information about student-led movements to improve learning conditions for diverse populations.
Daniel Justice, Demanding Kinder Classrooms Doesn’t Make You a Snowflake, The Walrus, August 23, 2017.
Tess Killpack et al, “Toward Inclusive STEM Classrooms: What Personal Role Do Faculty Play?” Life Sciences Education 15.3, June 3, 2016.
David Kirp, “Nudges that Help Struggling Students Succeed,” The New York Times, October 29, 2016.
D.N. Lee, “Engaging Minority Scholars in Science Should Also Include Addressing Isolation and Mental Wellness,” Scientific American, February 24, 2016.
Tiffany Martinez, “Academia, Love Me Back,” Viva Tiffany, October 27, 2016.
Laura Pappano, More Diversity Means More Demands, The New York Times, August 4, 2017.
Joi Spencer, “Moving from the Outside In, or What White Colleagues Need to Do to Get It Right with Their White Students,” in Interrogating Whiteness and Relinquishing Power: White Faculty’s Commitment to Racial Consciousness in STEM Classrooms, eds. Nicole Joseph et al, Peter Lang (2015)
David Takacs, “How Does Your Positionality Bias Your Epistemology?” Thought and Action: the NEA Higher Education Journal, 19.1 (2003) 27-38.
Gina Ulysse, “Pedagogies of Belonging,” The Huffington Post, December 7, 2015.
Sarah Ahmed, “Progressive Racism,” Feminist Killjoys, May 30, 2016.
Eula Biss, “White Debt,” The New York Times, December 2, 2015.
Chris Boeskool, “When You’re Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression,” The Huffington Post, July 14, 2016.
A.D. Carson, “It’s not my job to absolve white friends of racism, but it can seem that way,” The Guardian, September 18, 2015.
Robin DiAngelo, “White Fragility,” International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 3, no. 3 (2011).
Roxane Gay, “Peculiar Benefits,” in Bad Feminist: Essays, Harper Perennial (2014)
Sara Iacovelli, “6 Ways White Feminists Should NOT Respond To Racism Accusations,” Literally Darling, August 3, 2015.
Kate Johnson, “Reconceptualizing ‘Activism’: Developing a Socially Conscious Practice with Prospective White Mathematics Teachers,” in Interrogating Whiteness and Relinquishing Power: White Faculty’s Commitment to Racial Consciousness in STEM Classrooms, eds. Nicole Joseph et al, Peter Lang (2015)
Nikki Johnson-Huston, “The Culture of the Smug White Liberal,” The Huffington Post, August 17, 2016.
Talynn Kel, “White People You Have a Lying Problem,” The Establishment, July 8, 2016.
Gilda Ochoa, The Invisible Quality of Whiteness in Our Schools, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, August 2014
Susan Raffo (ed. Irna Landrum), The Sweet Lull of White Supremacy, or, Why White People Hate to be Called White, Daily Kos, August 17, 2017.
Leslie Scanlon, “White Fear and Fragility Will Be the Death of Us All,” The Presbyterian Outlook, October 12, 2016.
Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, Dismantling Whiteness in Academe, Inside Higher Ed, November 2017
Here you will find links to syllabi for each semester of the Pedagogy Series. Each semester we update readings and topics to be responsive to current events and to the institutional locations of seminar participants. We also maintain a library of relevant articles for further reading (see topic-based links below).
Fall ’16 Syllabus for faculty and staff who teach
Spring ’17 syllabus for administrators focused on “Examining Power Within Inclusion/Equity Initiatives”
Fall ’17 syllabus for faculty and staff who teach, focused on “De-conflating Political Affiliation from Structures of Power: Moving Beyond the Political Binary to get at Structural Inequity”