We share the following readings in support of our common practice: “Crafting curricula to reflect a range of voices and experiences based upon race, gender, sexuality, abilities, socioeconomics, ideologies, and epistemologies and to reflect diverse modalities–including but not limited to materials (readings, podcasts, videos, etc.), guest speakers, research methodology, and field experience.”
UNCA’s FYE Common Reader (texts used in all FYS 178 classes to provide a common experience for first-year students)
Linguistic Diversity
“How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua
“If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” by James Baldwin
“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan
“On and On: Appalachian Accent and Academic Power” by Meredith McCarroll
“Should Writers Use They Own English?” by Vershawn Ashanti Young
“There Is One Correct Way of Writing and Speaking” from Bad Ideas About Writing by Anjali Pattanayak
“The Translator” by Abdelfattah Kilito
“Thou Dost Not, and Shalt Not, Speak My Language” by Abdelfattah Kilito
Race and Anti-Racism
10 Documentaries To Watch About Race Instead Of Asking A Person Of Colour To Explain Things For You
Between the World and Me excerpt by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Brown Girl Dreaming excerpts by Jacqueline Woodson
“Debunking the Myth of the Angry Black Woman: An Exploration of Anger in Young African American Women,” J. Celeste Walley-Jean
“How Hip Hop Can Bring Green Issues to Communities of Color” by Thomas Easley
The Color of Sex by Catherine A Lutz and Jane L. Collins
“The Danger of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ Movement” by Heather MacDonald. [to teach bad argumentation and use of sources.]
“What I Said When My White Friend Asked for My Block Opinion on White Privilege” by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
Indigenous Narrative & Pedagogy
Braided Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Encountering Visions of Aztlán by Margaret R. LaWare
“Land as Pedagogy” excerpt by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Poverty, Ethnicity, & Discrimination
Between Choice and Coercion by Johanna Schoen
“How Discrimination Shapes What Your City Looks Like” by Lucy Tiven
“I Won’t Learn from You” Herb Kohl
“Leave Your Name at the Border” by Manuel Muñoz
“Taking My Parents to College” by Jennine Capó Crucet
“The Lasting Impact of Mispronouncing Students’ Names” by Clare McLaughlin
LGBTQ+ Diversity
“Out in the Mountains” Journal of Appalachian Studies
Social Activism
Bad Feminism excerpt by Roxanne Gay
“Bitch” by Beverly Gross
What is Activism? Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards