Try using some of the tools suggested below. Additional resources on Decolonising Reading Lists are within our Decolonising QMU reading list.
Before you can decolonise your reading list, please see decolonising your research as the groundwork to enable you to find questions that can help you start a discussion on decolonising reading lists. Ask yourself and reflect on the following questions:
The Global Social Theory website from the University of Sussex includes a list of global thinkers which can be a starting point in including a variety of views.
Acknowledgments: AEM Toolbox, University Arts London; UCL Decolonise the Curriculum.
This audit method has been developed to help you undertake an audit of your own lists.
Use the data you gather to start a conversation about the diversity of your reading lists, library collections, and wider curriculum.
Download the Diversity Audit Template below. Open the diversity audit spreadsheet template.
Go to the reading list system and locate the reading list you wish to audit. Search for the reading list by entering either the module title or code. Select View & Export and export the CSV file option - this will download a spreadsheet of the reading list.
Using the CSV file, copy and paste the title, type and importance into the title, type and importance columns of the diversity audit spreadsheet template. You can now close the CSV file, as you will no longer need this data once you have copied over the relevant sections of the spreadsheet.
It’s advisable that you keep open the online resource list in your browser, alongside the diversity audit spreadsheet. Identify the authors of each item listed on the reading list.
Most journal articles have the authors' institution location listed next to the authors' names and many books also show the authors' or editors' affiliations either on the title page or copyright page. Otherwise, conduct Google searches using the authors' names. You may need to consult university websites, publishers websites, trade and supplier websites, specifically looking for biographic details.
You may need to add the words like ‘education,’ ‘university,’ or keywords from the title of the book or item in order to locate the author.
Using Google Image search can also be helpful, especially for commonplace or ambiguous names. Google Image searches can also be useful where the item is particularly dated.
Many authors may also have written newspaper articles, especially UK authors. It is often possible to locate author details associated with online news articles, for example opinion pieces on The Guardian website.
It is likely that in some instances there will be no author details to be found or you may have found conflicting details. In these instances, it is advisable to select unknown in the audit spreadsheet.
In most instances, you are making a subjective judgment based on limited, publicly available information - sometimes all you will have is a photograph. If you are uncertain or uncomfortable making a judgment, select unknown on the audit spreadsheet dropdown box.
Complete the spreadsheet with as much data as you can gather and include any additional notes.
You don’t need to complete every column. If you wish to focus solely on the ethnic and racial diversity of the lists, please complete the relevant columns. Adding in additional information such as gender and date of publication can provide additional useful information.
Engage in conversation with your fellow colleagues, peers, and teaching staff - discuss what you have found and why you consider this to be important. Make contact with your Academic Liaison Librarian and discuss how you might go beyond the suggested readings. Consider making suggestions for other materials to be added to the Library.
Imperial College London have developed Geographic Bias Tool. This app assesses the geographic distribution of authors by calculating a Citation Source Index based on inputting any number of 500 DOIs (digital object identifiers), up to 500. It generates author country affiliations, country ranks and income statuses and displays information in graphs and maps. Only the 'lite' version is available freely. Here is a short video on how to use it.
Access to this resources free but limited to 30 days if you sign up: https://www.opensyllabus.org . This is non-profit archive of the main activity of higher education: teaching. It provides top-down views of the curriculum across thousands of schools. Among other things, The reading lists from courses all over the world can be a useful resource to pick up diverse authors and book titles from. Learning outcomes for equivalent courses can also be accessed. Here is a short video on how to use it.
Mapping the geopolitical inequalities of valued knowledge
(Adapted from Mapping the geopolitical inequalities of valued knowledge by Dr Monica Chavez Munoz which is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.)
Please see the Global North - Global South divide map (economic classification of the world's countries and territories by the UNCTAD in 2023)
To make a map of valued knowledge for an article or entire reading list, you need:
Instructions
1. Go to the title page of your paper. You can use this as an example: https://www.diamondopen.com/journals/index.php/ijce/article/view/551
2. Look for the authors’ institution cities (or countries) - usually next to the authors’ names or hover over the authors’ names to see their affiliation.
3. Go to the interactive map and make your own copy of the map. You will need a Google account.
4. In the search bar at the top, type in the city of each author’s institution.
5. Map of the north/south divide of academic publishing.
© 2020 by the University of Liverpool, Centre for Innovation in Education.
Mapping the geopolitical inequalities of valued knowledge by Dr Monica Chavez Munoz is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
