Reading Lists @ Strathclyde (Staff): Best Practice

Contact our team: 

    lib.readinglists@strath.ac.uk

     +44 (0) 141 548 4444

This guidance has been created to help teaching staff create good quality reading lists and highlight useful resources relating to EDI themes.                                                                                                                       

Reading lists are an important part of the student learning experience. They support teaching & learning on all the University’s Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses but they can often be dominated by western-centric or white-centric publications. This can give a legitimacy or authority to the authors, ideas, theories and perspectives that dominate within a discipline. Some voices will be elevated and others will be excluded. A small change to your reading list to include more inclusive resources can improve engagement and also increase a sense of belonging within the University. This can be a key step in offering the optimum learning environment and improving the student experience.

This guide aims to provide a range of resources to help colleagues engage in and work towards creating a reading list that is more inclusive and representative of our students’ diverse identities. As well as promoting awareness and discussion, we hope it will aid staff by offering practical considerations on how to diversify reading lists.

This page is a work in progress and we welcome your feedback and contributions. 

We hope these steps will help colleagues adopt a wide-ranging approach when reviewing a reading list

• Evaluate your existing reading list against a range of criteria, e.g. gender, ethnicity and demographic group of the authors.
• Consider the dominant voices and narratives in your resources and reflect on those who are excluded.
• Consider adding more content about marginalized people or by marginalized scholars. 
• Determine if your resources are western-centric, Euro-centric or white-centric.
• Update your list with more recent content and the contributions of contemporary thinkers and writers from diverse backgrounds.
• Reflect on any unconscious bias you might have displayed in selecting resources and consider how to address this.
• Consider using alternative titles from smaller publishers rather than the mainstream UK & US companies.
• Encourage your students to discuss the list and suggest alternative resources. 
• Review your reading list at regular intervals.