Not Token Gestures: Practical DEI Strategies in 21st-Century Higher Education

Contributors from various backgrounds offer insights for practices that move DEI efforts from the superficial and into the very fabric of how academia functions.

This volume offers practical strategies to support inclusive campus development in 21st century US higher education. Administrators, artists, and faculty from across the country provide tips for constructing curriculum, how to intervene in administrative procedures, and ways of enacting preliminary shifts to encourage a rich understanding of “academic excellence” for higher education. This collection emphasizes the human costs of decision making in higher education, and the need to draw from knowledges created by different communities to support learning spaces conducive to student growth. Born in a moment when DEI is under attack, contributors consider the immediacy that many members of US higher education find themselves in right now to construct tactical practices that can be taken up with expediency and rigor. Yet, contributors do not sacrifice quality for stealth. Indeed, contributors show that foundational to this era is an opportunity to move “DEI” from a side-project and into the fabric of academia.