In Print
Making a Real Difference with Diversity:
A Guide to Institutional Change, Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen,
Sharon Parker, Daryl G. Smith, José Moreno, and
Daniel Hiroyuki Teraguchi (AAC&U, 2007, $20.00 paperback)
This monograph, published by AAC&U, lays out a
comprehensive set of guidelines for campuses wishing
to improve not only access for underrepresented minority
students, but also campus climates and knowledge about
diversity for all students and faculty. Building on
the qualitative and quantitative findings of the James
Irvine Foundation’s Campus Diversity Initiative
(which ran from 2000 to 2005 in select California schools),
the authors offer a comprehensive guide to campus diversity
work. Stressing the importance of integrated self-evaluation,
the monograph suggests promising practices and outlines
specific steps to success. It is an indispensable resource
for diversity practitioners hoping to advance and revitalize
their own approaches to diversity work.
Higher Education in a Global Society: Achieving
Diversity, Equity, and Excellence, Ed. Walter R.
Allen, Marguerite Bonous-Hammarth, Robert Teranishi,
(Elsevier, 2006, $99.95 hardbound)
This extensive volume in the series “Advances
in Education in Diverse Communities: Research, Policy,
and Praxis” examines the status of diversity in
global higher education. Resulting from a 2003 conference
at the Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Center
in Bellagio, Italy, the collection implicitly argues
for international interdependence, particularly in the
realm of higher education. Case studies from various
nations serve as models for change and illustrate the
essential role of national and local context in diversity
work. Contributing scholars present a range of approaches
and solutions that argue for diversity education as
an imperative for creation of a just society. They examine
the need for systemic change that influences both pipelines
and student attitudes.
Higher Ground: Ethics and Leadership in
the Modern University, Nannerl O. Keohane (Duke
University Press, 2006, $24.95 cloth)
In response to the substantial economic and social
pressures inherent in the modern university, Keohane
reasserts the notion of public leadership in higher
education. Drawing on her experience as president of
Wellesley College and Duke University, the author argues
through this collection of essays and speeches that
the modern university has an essential responsibility
to produce informed citizens capable of ethical action
in the world. A large part of this responsibility, Keohane
notes, involves increasing institutional diversity,
both for the sake of broadening access to education
and to enhance the learning experience for all students.
Placing the modern university in its historical context,
Keohane illustrates the continued relevance of liberal
education in an increasingly global society.
Shades of the Planet: American Literature
as World Literature, Ed. Wai Chee Dimock and Lawrence
Buell (Princeton University Press, 2007, $24.95 paperback)
In this anthology of literary criticism, editors Dimock
and Buell challenge the philosophical and geographical
boundaries between America and the globe. Through a
series of essays on literature and culture written by
preeminent scholars—Susan Stanford Friedman, Eric
J. Sundquist, and Homi K. Bhabha among them—the
editors illustrate the importance of contextualization.
Their anthology argues, both implicitly and explicitly,
that by shifting the field of inquiry from hermetic
“America” to a series of mutable, interdependent
global contexts, scholars reach a more comprehensive
understanding of their subject matter. Although engaged
specifically with literature and American Studies, the
collection’s arguments have far-reaching implications
for scholarship in a wide range of disciplines.
