Northeastern Illinois University and its Department of Biology have been working to center diversity and amplify the voices of underrepresented scholars. To help with this, we (the editors) developed an assignment where undergraduate and graduate students identified underrepresented scientists and researched their personal story and their contributions to science. This assignment culminated in a final paper based on the students’ research. In the Spring of 2023, this assignment was instituted in our Senior Seminar and Biological Literature courses for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, respectively. From the completed assignments ten were chosen for inclusion in this publication. These ten scientists were selected by the individual students because they connected to them or their work in a meaningful way and wanted to share that connection with other students and faculty. We hope that this book will be helpful to faculty and students in the sciences who are engaged in their own diversity, equity, and inclusion work and make meaningful examples easier to find and incorporate into your biology curriculums.

This FFA Chapter Leadership Training document introduces the concept of bias awareness in a presentation prepared for the Omaha Bryan FFA chapter in the 2010s. Shown in the presentation are makeup of FFA students by race & ethnicity, approaching the topic with intent for all to grow in awareness and provide a more welcoming environment to anyone, student testimonials (names removed). Adapted from a presentation by Tyler Schindler and Taylor Wilton-Cooper, Omaha Bryan High School

This video is an overview of Ethnocentrism, Stereotypes, and Prejudice.

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This lesson plan, developed originally for graduate Library and Information Science (LIS) students is focused on developing culturally responsive and equity-minded LIS professionals when promoting open education with students, scholars, and community members from historically underrepresented backgrounds and/or with marginalized identities. Though many open practitioners discuss and leverage open education as a means of democratizing education and information access, we must remember the harm that learners and scholars face when we adopt openness with a paternalistic mindset. This lesson consists of readings, case studies, slide decks, and discussions.

Dive into the multifaceted landscape of inclusive excellence in STEM education with Fostering Communities of Transformation in STEM Higher Education. This scholarly work examines transformative initiatives from Virginia Tech, Radford University, Trinity Washington University, and Towson University, showcasing their role as catalysts in cultivating inclusive excellence across diverse STEM disciplines. Take inspiration from their projects and guidance from their lessons learned with this collection.

This guide acts as a preliminary resource for instructors and other faculty seeking to incorporate equitable practices into their pedagogy for their undergraduate classes. As such, this short text includes information about accessibility, pronouns and trans-inclusive classrooms, anti-racist pedagogy, and more.

Knowledge of open access stakes and initiatives is critical for understanding and promoting the fundamental role of faculty and librarians in the scholarly information cycle as academia aims to become diverse, equitable, and inclusive and make scholarship more accessible. Despite the open movement being decades old, there is still a gap in research on Black, Indigenous, and faculty of color (BIPOC) in the context of open access. Understanding the motivations for and barriers against Open Access (OA) publishing (and the relationships between them) among BIPOC faculty helps LIS practitioners and Open advocates design incentives to increase participation and decrease lack of knowledge and stigma around OA.

In 2020, Principle Investigator, Tatiana Bryant and her research team designed an original qualitative study that uncovers ways in which pre-tenure and tenured BIPOC perceive attitudes towards the legitimacy of open access publishing, especially as it relates to their own tenure and promotion processes. To advance this research, select study instruments are available in the Scholarly Communication Notebook for reuse and adaptation as part of a lesson plan designed to teach LIS students and professionals to consider how qualitative research methods can support their praxis.

The focus of this resource is primarily on the underrepresented area of publicly engaged scholarship. It addresses a wide range of MLIS students and LIS professionals based at universities, especially those whose mission explicitly encompasses engaged scholarship initiatives. The resource also spotlights publicly engaged publishing initiatives that provide examples of scholarly communications projects with social justice values such as equity, access, fairness, inclusivity, respect, ethics, and trust deeply embedded in their design. 

While examples shared in the first iteration of the resource will focus on model practices primarily in North America, the values-based nature of the resource will have global appeal. This resource describes the publishing challenges that publicly engaged scholars often encounter and offers a framework for tackling these challenges. Video interviews and insights are included to provide a range of viewpoints from scholars, advocates, and instructors.