Now entering its fourth year, the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Summer Book Club is excited to announce this year’s book selection, Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education (Corporealities: Discourses of Disability) by Jay T. Dolmage. The title was selected by the CCCOER community who were invited to vote on several books nominated by the EDI Committee. We invite everyone interested in the intersection of OER and EDI to join us this summer as we explore ableism in higher education, which, according to the author, “renders disability as abject, invisible, disposable, less than human, while able-bodiedness is represented as at once ideal, normal, and the mean or default.”
About the Book
Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education
Author Jay Dolmage begins with the premise that ableism is built into higher education’s histories, physical structures, and educational practices. Using a disability studies lens, the author deconstructs the exclusionary history of academia, examines the prevalent practice of retrofits and accommodations, and examines the introduction of universal design. According to a reviewer in H-Disability, “[one] of the greatest strengths of Academic Ableism lies in the bridges it constructs between historical contexts and legacies of exclusion and contemporary efforts to dismantle ableism by designing with disability in mind.”
Download Academic Ableism for free from Project MUSE
About the CCCOER EDI Book Club
The CCCOER EDI Book Club is open to anyone in the Open Education Community interested in exploring the intersection of EDI and OER.
The key goal of the CCCOER – EDI Book Club is to share knowledge with the OER community on equity, diversity, and inclusivity. This will be done by guiding our members in an online book discussion about EDI. This information will help address equity and anti-racism in Open Education. The aim of such sessions is to support educators and administrators in the OER community to implement the practice, strategy, or framework presented in each book club session.
CCCOER Facilitator’s Handbook
Become a CCCOER EDI Book Club Facilitator
Facilitator Training and Certificate
A facilitator’s certificate was developed in 2022 to recognize the work of our facilitators. Each facilitator who completes the facilitator training and facilitates a book club session receives this certificate to recognize their effort. This year’s training session will take place in May 2024. The actual date is still pending. If you have already filled out the CCCOER committee’s interest form and included the Book Club as one of your selections, we will be in touch soon.
Learning objects of the facilitator training and handbook include the following.
- Lead a virtual book club focused on equity, diversity, and/or inclusion, even if you’re not an expert on the subject.
- Establish and enforce norms for book group conversations about EDI with diverse participants.
- Create an inclusive space for discussions that contribute to advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education.
- Demonstrate knowledge of actionable steps to lead a community of practice for facilitators focusing on equity, diversity, and inclusion.
- Engage and scale inclusive community leadership strategies for non-subject matter experts.
Book Club Schedule
Synchronous meetings are held on Thursdays, 3 PM Eastern/2 PM Central/1 PM Mountain/12 PM Pacific/9 AM Hawaii-Aleutian Time. Sessions are 1.5 hours in length. Registration is required for these meetings. Asynchronous discussions will be offered via OEG Connect.
- June 13 Introduction & 1. Steep Steps
- June 27 2. The Retrofit
- July 11 3. Imaginary College Student
- July 25 4. Universal Design
- August 8 5. Disability on Campus, on Film: Framing the Failures of Higher Education
Be on the lookout for announcements about the Summer Book Club in the CCCOER Community email and OEG Connect as we get closer to June.
Featured image: book photo by Lucas George Wendt on Unsplash