“Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education: Strategies for Teaching,” edited by UC’s Rita Kumar and Brenda Refaei, and published by the University of Cincinnati Press, has been named a 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.
Each December, Choice publishes its list of Outstanding Academic Titles. This prestigious list reflects the best in scholarly titles, both print and digital, reviewed by Choice during the previous year and brings with it the extraordinary recognition of the academic library community. The list is quite selective, containing approximately ten percent of some 5,000 works reviewed annually in Choice, a publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.
In awarding Outstanding Academic Titles, the editors apply several criteria to reviewed titles:
- overall excellence in presentation and scholarship
- importance relative to other literature in the field
- distinction as a first treatment of a given subject in book or electronic form
- originality or uniqueness of treatment
- value to undergraduate students
- importance in building undergraduate library collections
Equity and Inclusion for Higher Education Strategies for Teaching details the necessity for an inclusive curriculum with examples of discipline-specific activities and modules. The intersectionality of race, age, socioeconomic status and ability all embody the diversity college instructors encounter in their classrooms. Through the chapters in this book, the contributors make apparent the “hidden curriculum,” which is taught implicitly instead of explicitly. The editors focus on learner-centered environments and accessibility of classroom materials for traditionally marginalized students; a critical part of the labor needed to create an inclusive curriculum.
Rita Kumar is the executive director of the Faculty Enrichment Center located in the Walter C. Langsam Library. Brenda Refaei, is co-director of the Learning + Teaching Center and a professor in the English and Communication at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College.
“I am thrilled this books was selected as a 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. The book fulfills the Press’s mission to create a significant impact for University of Cincinnati faculty research. It aptly represents our publishing list by addressing issues of equity and providing open access resources,” says acquiring editor and director of University of Cincinnati Press Elizabeth Scarpelli.
