Recommended Readings

Below are recommended works of art that address a wide range of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging topics from a variety of different perspectives. This list was compiled based on BIOE DEIB Committee recommendations, as well as suggestions from faculty, staff, and students and several different STEM-based organizations. 

If there is an item you would like added to this list, please email Ambi Narula.

  • The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker: In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive--which they don't have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play.
     
  • Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces by Karen Catlin:  In this book, you’ll learn to spot situations where you can create a more inclusive culture, along with straightforward steps to take. Karen will walk you through how to be a better ally, including: hiring and retaining a diverse workforce, amplifying and advocating for others, giving effective and equitable performance feedback, and using more inclusive language.
     
  • Gender: Your Guide by Lee Airton: Full of clear explanations and vivid examples, Gender: Your Guide can help you begin a transformative discussion about gender in any context. 
     
  • This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto against Agism by Ashton Applewhite: From childhood on, we’re barraged by messages that it’s sad to be old. That wrinkles are embarrassing, and old people useless. Author and activist Ashton Applewhite believed them too—until she realized where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. Lively, funny, and deeply researched, This Chair Rocks traces Applewhite’s journey from apprehensive boomer to pro-aging radical, and in the process debunks myth after myth about late life.
     
  • What so many get wrong about racism in the workplace by Fingerprint for Success:  This blog post features insightful stats on instances of racism in the workplace, which includes data from Glassdoor, SHRM, and other organizations. Fingerprint for Success also highlighted simple steps you can take to fight racism and promote equity in your own workplace. 
  • Being and Becoming Professionally Other; Identities, Voices, and Experiences of U.S. Trans* Academics by Erin Pitcher: Being and Becoming Professionally Other: Identities, Voices, and Experiences of U.S. Trans* Academics is a path-clearing book that provides a rich, in-depth account of the lived experiences of 39 transgender or trans* academics.
     
  • COVID-19-Related Stress among LBTQ+ University Students: Results of a U.S. National Survey (University of Maryland School of Public Health) by John P. Salerno, MPH, M. Pease, Jackson Devadas, Bryanna Nketia, and Jessica N. Fish, Ph.D.: Online survey results reveal that high proportions of LGBTQ+ students in the U.S. are facing basic needs, academic, and financial-related challenges during COVID-19. They are also facing high levels of substance use, psychological distress, and social isolation, and receiving little emotional support during COVID-19. As a result of COVID-19, high proportions are enduring LGBTQ+-related stressors, such as being rejected by family members for being LGBTQ+. LGBTQ+ students of color bear the added burden of racial oppression amid COVID-19.
     
  • We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation by Matthew Reimer and Leighton Brown: Through the lenses of protest, power, and pride, We Are Everywhere is an essential and empowering introduction to the history of the fight for queer liberation. Combining exhaustively researched narrative with meticulously curated photographs, the book traces queer activism from its roots in late-nineteenth-century Europe–long before the pivotal Stonewall Riots of 1969–to the gender warriors leading the charge today.
     
  • LBGTQ+ College Student Guide by Intelligent.com Higher education team: Choosing the right school is vital for every incoming college student, but it can be more challenging for those who identify as LGBTQ+. In addition to obstacles that all students face, LGBTQ+ students need to consider whether the institution has LGBTQ-inclusive policies, programs, and practices. Our new guides provide prospective students and their families with tools to identify the right schools, an overview of common challenges, tips for applying, and details on the federal laws that protect LGBTQ students. 
  • Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble: Algorithms of Oppression is a text based on over six years of academic research on Google search algorithms. Noble argues that search algorithms become racist because they reflect the biases and values of the people who create them. These algorithms can then have negative biases against women of color and other marginalized populations, while also affecting Internet users in general by leading to "racial and gender profiling, misrepresentation, and even economic redlining." She mentions the issue of technological redlining that profiles users.
     
  • Anti-Black Racism Education Resource List (New York University's Office of Global Inclusion): NYU's OGI developed a list that provides resources including articles, videos, podcasts, books, and guides about histories of racism and oppression primarily in the United States. These resources are meant to enhance opportunities for individuals and groups to provide further enrichment and education on antiracism.
     
  • Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. RIley Snorton: The story of Christine Jorgensen, America's first prominent transsexual, famously narrated trans embodiment in the postwar era. Her celebrity, however, has obscured other mid-century trans narratives--ones lived by African Americans such as Lucy Hicks Anderson and James McHarris. Their erasure from trans history masks the profound ways race has figured prominently in the construction and representation of transgender subjects. In Black on Both Sides, C. Riley Snorton identifies multiple intersections between blackness and transness from the mid-nineteenth century to present-day anti-black and anti-trans legislation and violence.
     
  • Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. DuBois: Black Reconstruction in America is a history of the Reconstruction era by W. E. B. Du Bois, first published in 1935. It marked a significant break with the standard academic view of Reconstruction at the time, the Dunning School, which contended that the period was a failure and downplayed the contributions of African Americans. Du Bois argued directly against these accounts, emphasizing the role and agency of blacks during the Civil War and Reconstruction and framing it as a period that held promise for a worker-ruled democracy to replace a slavery-based plantation economy.
     
  • Clap When You Land by alumna Elizabeth Acevedo (MFA ‘15): In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.
     
  • COVID-19 and Anti-Asian Racism: Contexts, Resources, Reflections by UMD students from AAST200: Introduction to Asian American Studies (Dr. Terry K. Park, Spring 2020): The mission of this Asian American Studies (AAST) classroom-based, digital humanities project is to give the University of Maryland community critical tools to deepen its understanding of the roots and routes of COVID-19 anti-Asian racism. 
     
  • “Does STEM Stand Out? Examining Racial/Ethnic Gaps in Persistence Across Postsecondary Fields” (SAGE Journals) by Catherine Riegle-Crumb, Barbara King, Yasmiyn Irizarry: Informed by the theoretical lens of opportunity hoarding, this study considers whether STEM postsecondary fields stand apart via the disproportionate exclusion of Black and Latina/o youth. 
     
  • Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad: As an East African, Arab, British, Black, Muslim woman who was born and grew up in the West, and lives in Middle East, Layla has always sat at a unique intersection of identities from which she is able to draw rich and intriguing perspectives. Layla's work is driven by her powerful desire to 'become a good ancestor'; to live and work in ways that leave a legacy of healing and liberation for those who will come after she is gone. 
     
  • The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter: The History of White People is a 2010 book by Nell Irvin Painter, in which the author explores the idea of whiteness throughout history, beginning with ancient Greece and continuing through the beginning of scientific racism in early modern Europe to 19th- through 21st-century America.
     
  • How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi: A guide through antiracist ideas and how to work to oppose them in society and ourselves.
     
  • Interviewed while Black (New England Journal of Medicine) by Josh Ellis, M.D., Onyeka Otugo, M.D., M.P.H., Alden Landry, M.D., M.P.H., and Adaira Landry, M.D: Inside a conference room with a long wooden table, a Black residency applicant sat next to 12 other applicants on interview day. None of their peers were Black. Across the table hung photos of faculty members, including the program director, medical director, and department chair. None were Black. In the corner of the room, administrators and coordinators were monitoring the agenda. None were Black. Rosters with descriptions and headshots of the faculty interviewers were distributed. None were Black. Later, residents spoke to applicants over lunch, and nurses sat at their workstations during the tour. None were Black.
     
  • No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies by E. Patrick Johnson: The follow-up to the groundbreaking Black Queer Studies, the edited collection No Tea, No Shade brings together nineteen essays from the next generation of scholars, activists, and community leaders doing work on black gender and sexuality. Building on the foundations laid by the earlier volume, this collection's contributors speak new truths about the black queer experience while exemplifying the codification of black queer studies as a rigorous and important field of study. 
     
  • Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia edited by Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. González, Angela P. Harris: Presumed Incompetent is a pathbreaking account of the intersecting roles of race, gender, and class in the working lives of women faculty of color. Through personal narratives and qualitative empirical studies, more than 40 authors expose the daunting challenges faced by academic women of color as they navigate the often hostile terrain of higher education, including hiring, promotion, tenure, and relations with students, colleagues, and administrators. 
     
  • So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo: Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the "N" word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don't dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.
     
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by alum Jason Reynolds (‘05) and Ibram X Kendi: The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.
     
  • Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene Carruthers: Drawing on Black intellectual and grassroots organizing traditions, including the Haitian Revolution, the U.S. civil rights movement, and LGBTQ rights and feminist movements, Unapologetic challenges all of us engaged in the social justice struggle to make the movement for Black liberation more radical, more queer, and more feminist. 
     
  • Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neill (UMD First-Year Book 2020-2021): We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives—where we go to school, whether we get a car loan, how much we pay for health insurance—are being made not by humans, but by mathematical models. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: Everyone is judged according to the same rules, and bias is eliminated. But as Cathy O’Neil reveals in this urgent and necessary book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and uncontestable, even when they’re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination: If a poor student can’t get a loan because a lending model deems him too risky (by virtue of his zip code), he’s then cut off from the kind of education that could pull him out of poverty, and a vicious spiral ensues. Models are propping up the lucky and punishing the downtrodden, creating a “toxic cocktail for democracy.” Welcome to the dark side of Big Data.
     
  • What is Juneteenth? from the History Channel: Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. Learn more about the history of this holiday. The University System of Maryland Office and institutions formally observe the Juneteenth holiday.
  • Code Switch Podcast on NPR: Code Switch focuses on fearless conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the podcast tackles the subject of race head-on. The hosts explore how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between. 
     
  • Bettina Love, author of “We Want to Do More Than Survive,” vividly explains the difference between allies and co-conspirators in the fight for justice (CSPAN)
     
  • The Cite Black Women Podcast: This bi-weekly podcast features reflections and conversations about the politics and praxis of acknowledging and centering Black women’s ideas and intellectual contributions inside and outside of the academy through citation. Episodes feature conversations with Black women inside and outside of the academy who are actively engaged in radical citation as praxis, quotes and reflections on Black women's writing, and conversations on weathering the storm of citational politics in the academy, decolonizing syllabi and more.
     
  • Intersectionality Matters! Podcast: Intersectionality Matters! is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.
  • Anti-Black Racism Education Resource List (New York University's Office of Global Inclusion): NYU's OGI developed a list that provides resources including articles, videos, podcasts, books, and guides about histories of racism and oppression primarily in the United States. These resources are meant to enhance opportunities for individuals and groups to provide further enrichment and education on antiracism.
     

  • Questioning the Value of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) in Ph.D. Admissions in Biomedical Engineering (Nature Public Health Emergency Collection) by Michael R. King,  G. Kane Jennings, Roger G. Chalkley, and Linda J. Sealy

  • Ten simple rules for building an antiracist lab (PLOS Computational Biology) by V. Bala Chaudhary and Asmeret Asefaw Berhe:  Demographics of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce and student body in the US and Europe continue to show severe underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Among the documented causes of the persistent lack of diversity in STEM are bias, discrimination, and harassment of members of underrepresented minority groups (URMs). These issues persist due to continued marginalization, power imbalances, and lack of adequate policies against misconduct in academic and other scientific institutions. All scientists can play important roles in reversing this trend by shifting the culture of academic workplaces to intentionally implement equitable and inclusive policies, set norms for acceptable workplace conduct, and provide opportunities for mentorship and networking.
  • In an Era of Pandemic and Protest, STEM Education Can't Pretend to be Apolitical (Truthout) by Daniel Morales-Doyle, Shirin Vossoughi, Sepehr Vakil & Megan Bang: This op-ed addresses why math and science education needs to teach the political, ethical, and cultural dimensions of problem-solving.
     
  • Patching the Leaks: Revitalizing and Reimagining the STEM Pipeline (ScienceDirect) by Antentor O. Hinton, Christina M. Termini, Elsie C. Spencer, Florentine U.N. Rutaganira, Daphney Chery, ReAna Roby, Zer Vue, Angela D. Pack, Lillian J. Brady, Edgar Garza-Lopez, Andrea G. Marshall, Samantha C. Lewis, Haysetta D. Shuler, Brittany L. Taylor, Melanie R. McReynolds, and Caroline B. Palavicino-Maggio: The study identifies problematic areas throughout the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) pipeline that perpetuate racial disparities in academia. Distinct ways to curtail these disparities include early exposure and access to resources, supportive mentoring networks and comprehensive training programs specifically for racially minoritized students and trainees at each career stage. These actions will revitalize the STEM pipeline.
     
  • Ten simple rules for women principal investigators during a pandemic (PLOS Computational Biology) by Pamela K. Kreeger, Amy Brock, Holly C. Gibbs, K. Jane Grande-Allen, Alice H. Huang, Kristyn S. Masters, Padmini Rangamani, Michaela R. Reagan, and Shannon L. Servoss: In the spring of 2020, nearly all academic institutions went to some level of shutdown/quarantine in order to slow the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). For many universities, courses were moved online, laboratory-based research was required to slow or stop, and most on-site work shifted to telework. Optimistically, many academics thought initially that this might lead to a surge in research productivity. Indeed, by this point, we suspect that readers have heard that Isaac Newton apparently figured out calculus while in isolation during the plague. Consistent with this, some of the authors experienced or observed messaging from department chairs, center leaders, or mentors telling principal investigators (PIs) that the pandemic situation has likely created “extra time” for them to focus on writing grants and developing new ideas. 
     
  • Code of Ethics for Engineers (National Society of Professional Engineers): Engineering is an important and learned profession. As members of this profession, engineers are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity. Engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life for all people. Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare.

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