Leganto Policies

Diversifying Reading Lists - Guidance for Academics

The University of Wolverhampton is committed to providing a curriculum that reflects the incredible diversity of our student population. It has developed clearly defined policies on approaches to Disability, Race, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender to support this.
Our students and staff are from a diverse cultural background and where possible it is our aim to provide access to learning and research materials that reflect this experience.

Working in partnership with academics in Faculties, the Library is committed to the principles of the University’s Inclusive Curriculum Framework. A central question posed by this is:

Where am I in the Curriculum?

Academics are encouraged to consider this question carefully and apply it to the development of Reading Lists for new modules. Reading Lists for existing modules should also be examined with the same rigour.
The University is committed to a diverse programme offer that thinks critically about current knowledge, power relations and positionality both in academia and practice.
Programmes should therefore consider diverse perspectives, for example, relating to ethnicity, disability, gender, class, sexuality, social justice, including the questioning of dominant western models. Course content should aim to cover contributions by people from multiple cultures.

How can I introduce diversity to the curriculum?

Diversity could mean including content about marginalised groups or communities. It can also include incorporating content produced by marginalised scholars.

This will need to be assessed carefully. However, there is no set target or ratio to work to. The aim is to make an informed decision on the inclusion of academic voices and content that may not be currently present in your teaching programme.
This involves identifying knowledge, academic theory and creative content produced by people who may have been previously marginalized as a result of their class, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, race, or ability.

Is help available?

The Liaison Team at the University can guide you to academic sources to help you identify diverse content. Some of this will be readily available via our existing provision. For further information, please visit: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/lib/academics/

Help and guidance in relation to the creation and organisation of reading lists can be found here: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/its/digital-campus/digital-library-platform/leganto-reading-list-system/  

Further Sources

HEA Guidelines:
https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/embedding-equality-and-diversity-curriculum-model-learning-and-teaching-0

Diversity Reading List:
https://diversityreadinglist.org/teach/

Alternative Reading List Project:

https://thealternativereadinglistproject.wordpress.com/ 

Download the Diversifying Reading Lists policy as a PDF document