This study presents a case for decolonising the life sciences curriculum to improve representation of the Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) scholars--a step in eliminating the race "awarding gap". Here, we investigated diversity among authors in terms of ethnicity and gender of reading lists at the School of Life Sciences,…

There is a growing impetus, from university students and administrations, to decolonise the curriculum and develop diverse reading lists. Yet, there is limited theoretical or empirical analysis of the authorship of current reading lists to justify this imperative. The present study developed and applied a method for auditing the authorship on…

Many instructors strive to encourage student reading outside of class and active learning in class. One pedagogical tool, structured reading questions, can help do both. Using examples from question sets across six courses, the authors illustrate how reading questions can help students achieve the six active-learning principles described by…

What makes someone an "Illinois Author"? What role do these writers play in American literature? How has Illinois been presented as a setting in literature? These were a few of the questions prominent on a promotional brochure last Spring semester for a new course the author would be offering in the Fall. Now that the course has been…

A conversation with a noted historian of the American West concerns his own career and writing, and changes and trends in the college curriculum and profession of teaching. (MSE)

The writings of Martin Luther King Jr. deserve to be read in undergraduate humanities classes but not in the spirit advocated by former Secretary of Education William Bennett. It is argued that Bennett downplays the struggles against racial discrimination and chooses the most conservative King pieces for the literary canon. (SLD)