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Why diversify?

Research, both nationally and at the University of Kent, shows that reading lists that consider the diversity of the student body improve engagement and help to develop key graduate attributes. A minor change to your course materials could make a major change to the way a student, or a group of students, engage with your module.

Academic librarians work with the Student Success Team and module convenors in diversifying reading lists to help create a sense of belonging and increase cultural competencies. This is most often through the path to a Diversity Mark Award.

Take a look at Student Success website to learn more about routes toward a Diversity Mark Award and be inspired by the outcomes of previous awardees.

Whatever route you take to achieve a Diversity Mark award or if you want to consider the diversity in your reading lists, the library can support you.

Where to begin:

  1. If you have an existing or inherited reading list for your module, reflect on the level of diversity within it. This allows you to benchmark your progress and set some goals or directions to explore change. There are tools to help you with this reflection and you can utilise CoPilot or ChatGPT to review your reading list for racial or gender diversity.
  2. Watch our ‘resourcing your module’ webinar (80mins). This video considers the pedagogical and technical elements of creating a reading list that is diverse and inclusive for students.
  3. Meet with your academic librarian to help you find more diverse resources in your subject area or to deliver training to your students on topics like critical literacy.
  4. Look through the library resources bought for their diverse authorship/perspectives. You can filter these by subject as well to find those most useful to your module.
  5. Journal articles can help to increase the diversity of authors but also allow for up-to-date commentators on a topic. Use citation indexes to find relevant articles to your area. Then try filtering by country/region of origin or institutional affiliation to find research from the Global South.
  6. Look at alternative academic publishers that highlight academic works from diverse authors. You can request these on your reading lists and we will source these for you.
  7. Go beyond written texts to include podcasts, film media and blogs that might present diverse perspectives or talking points for your teaching. The library has a collection of audio-visual resources that you can use in teaching.
  8. Look at best practices elsewhere. Colleagues at Kent and other educational institutions might have developed initiatives or resource lists in your discipline already.