Diversity and Your Department

Resources for addressing diversity and inclusion

Writing

Lovejoy, K. B., Fox, S., & Wills, K. V. (2009). From Language Experience to Classroom Practice: Affirming Linguistic Diversity in Writing Pedagogy. Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, 9(2), 261-287. (PDF)

In this article, Lovejoy et al. advocate for college writing courses that work towards acceptance of each student's native language and dialect, instead of forcing a single, monolingual writing style. To illustrate their point, each author describes certain experiences that helped them maintain an inclusive classroom environment. This is recommended for any professor that teaches writing-heavy courses.

McBeth, M. (2010). (Un)Standard Deviations: Observing Diversity/Enabling Divergence. WPA Writing Program Administration: Journal of the Council of Writing Program Administrators, 33(3), 129-134. (PDF)

McBeth argues that we cannot rely on the standard categories of diversity, but must constantly reexamine what diversity is at an instructional, scholarly, and administrative level, and that diversity needs to take both the individual's rights and the claims that each community holds for the individual. This is recommended for all professors.

Mitchell, D. (2008). I Thought Composition Was about Commas and Quotes, not Queers: Diversity and Campus Change at a Rural Two-Year College. Composition Studies, 36(2), 23-50. (PDF)

The type of college being discussed in this article is incredibly different from the type of institution that Reed College is. That being said, the goals of Mitchell's teaching philosophy, "to facilitate improvement in student writing while also broadening their range of cultural experiences in order to better foster diversity, making room on campus for difference —different subjectivities, different ideas, and different expectations," is a goal that can continue to be developed even at a place such as Reed.