A List of DEIA Resources for Higher Education

DEIA resources

The Toward Inclusive Excellence (TIE) team has received several requests for a “rolling” (read: frequently updated) list of DEIA resources since our launch in March of this year.

TIE community, we hear you.

Your request aligns with an increased interest in materials on race and racism, according to The New York Times. In partnership with several colleagues, we will aim to provide you a quarterly curated list of DEIA resources starting with this list.

Many thanks to the contributors.

Books on Diversity in Higher Education Leadership

  1. Choosing to Lead (2017) edited by Antonia P. Olivas
  2. Culturally Responsive Teaching and Reflection in Higher Education (2017) edited by Sharlene Voogd Cochrane, Meenakshi Chhabra, Marjorie A. Jones, and Deborah Spragg
  3. The Department Chair as Transformative Diversity Leader (2015) by Edna Chun and Alvin Evans
  4. The Disordered Cosmos A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred (2021) by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
  5. The Diversity Bargain (2016) by Natasha K. Warikoo
  6. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Action (2020) edited by Christine Bombaro
  7. Diversity’s Promise for Higher Education, 3rd ed. (2020) by Daryl G. Smith
  8. The Enigma of Diversity (2015) by Ellen Berrey
  9. Feeling White Whiteness, Emotionality, and Education (2016) by Dr. Cheryl Matias
  10. From Equity Talk to Equity Walk (2020) by Tia Brown McNair, Estela Mara Bensimon, and Lindsey Malcom-Piqueux
  11. On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (2012) by Sara Ahmed
  12. Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications (2019) prepared by Nancy Maron and Rebecca Kennison
  13. Organizational Theory for Equity and Diversity (2019) by Colleen A. Capper
  14. Presumed Incompetent (2012) edited by Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. Gonzalez, and Angela P. Harris
  15. Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence (2016) by Derald Wing Sue
  16. Right Within: How to Heal from Racial Trauma in the Workplace (2021) by Minda Harts
  17. Social Justice and Activism in Libraries (2019) edited by Su Epstein, Carol Smallwood, and Vera Gubnitskaia

Seminal Texts for Understanding the Black Experience

  1. Before the Mayflower (1962) by Lerone Bennett
  2. Black Reconstruction in America (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois) (2014) by W. E. B. Du Bois, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
  3. Crusade for Justice, 2nd ed. (2020) by Ida B. Wells, edited by Alfreda M. Duster
  4. The Devil Finds Work (1976) by James Baldwin
  5. The Fire Next Time (1963) by James Baldwin
  6. Paradise (1997) by Toni Morrison (fiction)
  7. The Red Record (1895) by Ida B Wells-Barnett
  8. The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer (2013) edited by Maegan Parker Brooks and Davis W. Houck
  9. The Speeches of Frederick Douglass: A Critical Edition (2018) edited by John R. McKivigan, Julie Husband, and Heather L. Kaufman
  10. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston (fiction)
  11. Women, Race & Class (1983) by Angela Y. Davis

Modern Touchstones for Educating on Race and Racism

  1. American Crucible (2017) by Gary Gerstle
  2. Caste (2020) by Isabel Wilkerson
  3. Encyclopedia of African-American Writing (2018) edited by Bryan Conn and Tara Bynum
  4. How to Be an Antiracist (2019) by Ibram X. Kendi
  5. How to Be Less Stupid About Race (2019) by Crystal Marie Fleming
  6. Racism Without Racists, 6th ed. (2021) by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
  7. Slavery by Another Name (2009) by Douglas A. Blackmon
  8. Southern History across the Color Line (2002) by Nell Irvin Painter
  9. Stamped From the Beginning (2016) by Ibram X. Kendi
  10. Strangers in the Land (2002) by John Higham
  11. Tears we Cannot Stop (2017) by Michael Dyson
  12. We Were Eight Years in Power (2017) by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  13. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (2017) by Beverly Daniel Tatum

Essays and Online Resources for Diversity and Leadership

  1. Mountains to climb: Leadership for sustainable change in scholarly communication” by Jon E. Cawthorne (College & Research Libraries News, September 2020)
  2. Barriers to Faculty Diversity: Tomorrow’s Academic Careers” (Standford’s Tomorrow’s Professor Postings)
  3. College faculty have become more racially and ethnically diverse, but remain far less so than students” by Leslie Davis and Richard Fry (Pew Research Center, July 2019)
  4. Diversifying the Faculty” by Orlando Taylor, Cheryl Burgan Apprey, George Hill, Loretta McGrann, and Jianping Wang (Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2010)
  5. Handbook of Best Practices for Faculty Searches & Online Toolkit (University of Washington)
  6. Incentivizing Faculty Diversity” by Katherine Newman (Inside Higher Ed, January 2020)
  7. Slow Going on Faculty Diversity” by Nick Hazelrigg (Inside Higher Ed, July 2019)

TIE owes many thanks to the Association for College and Resource Libraries (ACRL) for sharing with us some of the resources compiled in their LibGuide on Racial Justice & Higher Ed. In addition, we wish to thank the following Choice reviewers and their colleagues who specialize in this field and who graciously contributed recommendations to the list above as well:

Alicia Muhammad headshot

Dr. Alicia Muhammad

Associate Director for Retention Initiatives, Appalachian State University

Dunstan McNutt headshot

Dunstan McNutt

Instruction Librarian, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

DeeDee Baldwin headshot

DeeDee Baldwin

History Research Librarian, Mississippi State University Libraries

Michelle Oh headshot

Michelle Oh

Assistant Professor and Education Librarian, Northeastern Illinois University

Lauren Delaubell headshot

Lauren deLaubell

Associate Librarian, SUNY Cortland

Seth Asumah headshot

Dr. Seth N. Asumah

SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor; Chair and Professor of Africana Studies; Professor of Political Science, SUNY Cortland

Mecke Nagel headshot

Dr. Mecke Nagel

Professor, Philosophy and Africana Studies; Director, Center for Ethics, Peace, and Social Justice, SUNY Cortland

*Dr. Mecke Nagel also suggests James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X as essential authors to reference, to which Lauren deLaubell would add Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde.

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Interested in contributing to TIE? Send an email to Deb V. at Choice dvillavicencio@ala-choice.org with your topic idea.


Header image is a detail of This is Harlem by Jacob Lawrence. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. © 2021 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. For more information, click here.