Diversifying Your Reading List

Diversity in reading material can introduce new perspectives to old topics, and perhaps challenge the boundaries of a field, thereby opening up our course material to criticism and debate. Broadening the range of viewpoints, genres, and voices represented on your reading list can make your class and discipline more inviting to students, as our syllabi signal who is worthy of study or who gets to participate in academic conversations. While these possible benefits are attractive, how does one diversify a syllabus in practice? What balance can be struck between more canonical, dominant voices and non-dominant or non-canonical perspectives? This workshop will consider the rationales for diversifying one’s syllabus and offer concrete approaches to do so.

Counts toward the CTL Teaching Certificate.