How to decolonise or queer a reading list

Inclusive searches & sources @FMG Library (39)

Both my colleague Rika Theo‘s experience last year at the Department of Political Science, and the interest of Josien Arts and Margriet van Heesch, lecturers at the Department of Sociology, have given me the opportunity to better explore the literature, best practices and tools available to decolonise or queer reading lists. Collaboration between lecturers, librarians, and students is generally recommended. Here below follow some possible steps, with examples of decolonised reading lists and search tools, and a selection from the literature on the topic.

(1) Consider doing an audit of your reading list

What is the scope of the audit and how it relates to the contents of the course?
— comparison with other courses/institutions?
— or, with student population/staff composition?…

What elements do you want to assess for and why?
— authors (affiliation, age, Country, disability, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexuality)?
— and/or publications (language, publisher, year, etc.)…?

Who is going to gather the data and how?
— data collection & organization
— timeline…

Available tools
— Filling in the Gaps: A Diversity Audit Toolkit from Tredway Library (Augustana College)
— Reading List Diversity Audit (Manchester Metropolitan University)

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(2) Search for decolonised/queered reading lists at other institutions

Google searches similar to the following can be set up to find reading lists (see details of how this was done and with which results for Queering International Relations Reading List):
— (decolonisation OR decolonised OR decolonial) sociology “reading list”
— (queer OR LGBT OR gender OR sexuality) “international relations” syllabus
— (race OR racism OR antiracism OR antiracist) sociology syllabus

Some already decolonised reading lists I’ve encountered while exploring the topic follow here. Please note that – just as with the Google examples above – you might need/wish to expand the possible results by searching in other languages than English and/or by browsing other sources than British ones (the following all are, apart from Open Syllabus, which is a USA-based repository that «collects and analyzes millions of syllabi to support novel teaching and learning applications»).

• The Alternative Reading List Project (Oxford University)
• Best Practice in Diversifying Reading Lists (Leeds Beckett University)
• Broaden my Bookshelf Books (University of Huddersfield)
• Cite African Feminists: Some Readings (Awino Okech, SOAS University of London)
• Decolonising DMU (De Montfort University)
• Decolonising@Lincoln: Library toolkit (University of Lincoln)
• Decolonising the curriculum (University of East Anglia)
• Diverse reading lists from academic institutions (Sarah Field, University of Kent)
• Diversity mark toolkit (University of Kent)
• Global Social Theory (University of Sussex, Gurminder K. Bhambra)
• Open Syllabus

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(3) Use advanced search techniques and a variety of search tools
to find more diverse literature on specific topics

This is a step-by-step approach to find more diverse literature:
— translate the key concepts of the topic into search terms;
— define the types of publication needed, date range, language(s), etc.;
— identify relevant search tools (such as Subject-specific databases via the UvA Library) and run the searches;
— analyze and diversify the results with cross-searches with other tools (see (4) below);
— adjust/set up reading lists or curated bibliographies that faculty and students can draw from (see examples of curated bibliographies for the Department of Italian Studies);
— make purchase requests for publications missing at the UvA Library.

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(4) Other search tools: Advocacy, literature, (open access) publishers

The listed resources are not subject-specific, with the exception of Women Also Know Stuff (a database promoting «the work of women for political science») and of the Asociación Latinoamericana de Sociología and the Association Internationale des Sociologues de Langue Française. The latter are given as examples for searching similar associations in other languages and/or world regions, and for other disciplines than Sociology. Interest groups at such organizations might represent relevant points of contact with like-minded lecturers elsewhere.

For more resources, check also our previous posts on Academic Freedom Index, disinformation and fake news, grey literature, inclusive language, scholars from the Global South.

• African Books Collective (African-published books)
• Alternative and International Publishers (by Caroline Ball, University of Derby)
• Asociación Latinoamericana de Sociología
• Association Internationale des Sociologues de Langue Française
• BASE: Bielefeld Academic Search Engine
• C4DISC Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications
• Decolonising through critical librarianship: International suppliers list (Cambridge University Library)
• DOAB Directory of Open Access Books
• DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals
• OAPEN Online Library of Open Access Books
• OpenEdition: Ressources numériques et communication scientifique
• Project Myopia (Rianna Walcott, University of Maryland)
• Shades of noir (Aisha Richards, University of the Arts London)
• Sources of diverse material (Sarah Field, University of Kent)
• Women Also Know Stuff

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(5) Consulted literature
Acknowledgment
All the following publications are written in English and are (most often) the work of scholars from academic institutions in (Western) Europe or the United States of America.

• Arshad, R. (2021, September 14). Decolonising the curriculum: How do I get started? Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/decolonising-curriculum-how-do-i-get-started.
• Arshad, R. (2021, July 8). From inclusion to transformation to decolonization. Teaching Matters Blog. https://www.teaching-matters-blog.ed.ac.uk/from-inclusion-to-transformation-to-decolonisation/.
• Charles, E. (2019). Decolonizing the curriculum. Insights, 32 (1). https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.475.
• Colgan, J. (2017). Gender bias in International Relations graduate education? New evidence from syllabi. PS: Political Science & Politics, 50(2), 456–460. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096516002997.
• Emerson, M. E., & Lehman, L. G. (2022). Who are we missing? Conducting a diversity audit in a Liberal Arts College Library. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 48(3), Article 102517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2022.102517.
• Grewal, N. (2021, March 9). To ‘decolonise’ education, we need to ask different questions. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/decolonise-education-we-need-ask-different-questions.
• Haandrikman, F. (2023). Summary diversity scan course literature at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Erasmus University Rotterdam. https://www.eur.nl/library/media/112083.
• Harris, J. K., Croston, M. A., Hutti, E. T., & Eyler, A. A. (2020). Diversify the syllabi: Underrepresentation of female authors in college course readings. Plos One 15(10), Article e0239012. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239012.
• Price, R., Skopec, M., MacKenzie, S., Nijhoff, C., Harrison, R., Searbrook, G., & Harris, M. (2022). A novel data solution to inform curriculum decolonisation: The case of the Imperial College London Masters of Public Health. Scientometrics, 127. 1021-1037. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04231-3.
• Proctor, J. (2020). Representation in the collection: Assessing coverage of LGBTQ content in an academic library collection. Collection Management, 45:3, 223-234, DOI: 10.1080/01462679.2019.1708835.
• Schucan Bird, K., & Pitman, L. (2020). How diverse is your reading list? Exploring issues of representation and decolonisation in the UK, Higher Education, 79, 903-920. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00446-9.
• Sumner, J. L. (2018). The Gender Balance Assessment Tool (GBAT): A web-based tool for estimating gender balance in syllabi and bibliographies. PS: Political Science & Politics. 51(2), 396-400. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096517002074.
• Vandana Stone, R. (2021, April 7). How not to decolonise your curriculum. Wonkhe. https://wonkhe.com/blogs/how-not-to-decolonise-your-curriculum/.
• Wilson, K. (2019, October 26). Decolonising library collections: Towards inclusive collections policies. Decolonising LSE Collective. https://decolonisinglse.wordpress.com/2019/10/26/decolonising-library-collections-towards-inclusive-collections-policies/.