Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Action: Planning, Leadership, and Programming. Christine Bombaro, ed. Chicago, IL: ALA Editions, 2020. 208p. Paper.

Christine Bombaro’s edited volume, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Action: Planning, Leadership, and Programming, is thoughtful, useful, and timely. Bombaro, associate director at the Dickinson College library, introduces this compilation by framing as a moral problem the gap between academic librarianship’s stated goals around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and its actual record. She argues that we must move beyond “merely trying our best” to actually “getting it right” (xii). Bombaro’s introduction and the first chapter serve to ground the book with historical and theoretical context around DEI in academic libraries and argue persuasively that we must move past dialogue to taking action. The chapters that follow offer case studies by academic library practitioners who describe actions taken in their institutions. Each chapter follows a similar structure, with literature reviews, case details, discussion, and careful footnoting. This book covers topics that include organizational goals and plans around DEI, developing cultural competencies for library staff, barriers to workforce diversity, and the development of models for how libraries can better serve the diverse communities with whom we work.

Collaboration to Counter Fresh Water Scarcity and Promote Human Security

In the autumn of 2017, two professors and 13 undergraduate students from Dickinson College (Carlisle, Pennsylvania, US) engaged in 3 weeks of field research in Nepal. The students were assigned to one of four teams. Each was assisted by a pair of graduate students affiliated with Tribhuvan University (Kathmandu, Nepal). Each team conducted numerous semi-structured interviews in one of four wards of the Panchkahl Municipality of Kavrepalanchok District. When they returned to the US, each student team generated a 50-page report that summarized their findings. To frame the findings of those reports, the authors of this chapter constructed a basic yet original systems model. Their analysis suggests: (1) the importance of collaboration among system participants as the key to developing the capabilities needed to adapt to fresh water shortages and enhance prospects for human security and (2) the need for further system transformation to further promote adaptation.

One Hundred Voices: Harrisburg’s Historic African American Community, 1850-1920

In 2020, a coalition of citizens, organizers, legislators, and educators came together to commemorate the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments by establishing a new monument in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This would be a memorial dedicated to the capital city’s significant African American community and its historic struggle for the vote. The Commonwealth Monument, located on the Irvis Equality Circle on the South Lawn of Pennsylvania’s State Capitol Grounds, features a bronze pedestal inscribed with one hundred names of change agents who pursued the power of suffrage and citizenship between 1850 and 1920. This book is a companion to this monument and tells the stories of those one hundred freedom seekers, abolitionists, activists, suffragists, moralists, policemen, masons, doctors, lawyers, musicians, poets, publishers, teachers, preachers, housekeepers, janitors, and business leaders, among many others. In their committed advocacy for freedom, equality, and justice, these inspiring men and women made unique and lasting contributions to the standing and life of African Americans—and, indeed, the political power of all Americans—within their local communities and across the country. Calobe Jackson, Jr., is an historian of Harrisburg African American studies, Katie Wingert McArdle is a writer and researcher currently serving as the head swim coach at Dickinson College, and David Pettegrew is a professor of history at Messiah University.

Ethics Across Campus and the Curriculum

In this essay, I offer an overview of the “Ethics Across Campus and the Curriculum Program” developed at Dickinson College over the past two years as part of a broader initiative to promote civic education and engagement. The essay proceeds in three parts. First, I explain the decision to adopt the language of “ethical reasoning” in our program and how I understand this work as supporting student activism. Second, I describe the faculty study group developed to incorporate ethical reasoning into already existing courses across the college. Third, I focus on how our college has incorporated ethical reasoning into new student orientation and first year student leadership retreats. Finally, I conclude with work on the horizon and a surprising result that has emerged from doing this work.

Awareness and Corrective Feedback in Social CALL, Tandems, and E-Tandems

Previous studies have identified advantages for second languagelearning in computer mediated settings (Kern, 1995, Warschauer,1997, Blake, 2008), particularly through online interculturalcollaboration (Furstenberg et al, 2001, Vinagre, 2005, O’Dowd, 2007,Bower & Kawaguchi, 2011). However, face-to-face (tandems) andonline (e-tandems) language exchanges remain peripheral to foreignlanguage education (O’Dowd, 2010, 2013) and rely heavily oninstructor guidance (Beltz, 2003, Bower & Kawaguchi, 2011), in spiteof the proliferation of Language Learning Social Networking Sites(LLSNs) such as Livemocha, Busuu, Shared Talk, and The Mixxer(Dickinson College). In response, this paper analyzes tandem andsocial Computer Assisted Language Learning (sCALL) awareness andexperiences among students and instructors of Spanish at the collegelevel by means of a survey and two pilot studies on tandem learning.The results of this research should encourage administrators andinstructors to support tandem learning and implement tandem andsCALL activities as co-curricular, semi-guided projects. The need ofpreparation for the tandem experience is also emphasized, particularlyin regards to corrective feedback.

Leonidas Donskis – an encyclopedic Renaissance-like figure

This report was made at the Doctor Honoris Causa conferred to Prof. Leonidas Donskis by Valahia University of Târgoviște on November 6th, 2014. The editors express their gratitudeto Vlad-Gabriel Ghiorghiu, a CoolPeace graduate, for the admirable translation of this report. The publication of this report is supported by EEA Grants, contract no 4/22.07.2014. Currently a professor of advanced studies and academic development at the ISM University of Management and Economics of Kaunas and Vilnius, Lithuania, and a former member of the European Parliament, Leonidas Donskis was born on the 13th of August 1962 in Klaipėda, Lithuania. From 2005 to 2009 he served as dean of the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy at Vytautas Magnus University of Kaunas, Lithuania. As a docent, visiting and associate professor, he also taught at the University of Helsinki, Finland, in the field of social and moral philosophy, at the University of Tallinn, Estonia, in the field of philosophy and theory of culture, as well as universities from the United States (Dickinson College, Pennsylvania and Montevallo University, Alabama) in the field of cultural studies and universities from England, Italy and Hungary in similar fields of endeavor. Alongside his scholarly career stands his remarkable contribution to the field of the mass-media, both as a producer and moderator of cultural programs for the Lithuanian Television or as editor for the print media (The Baltic Times, The Ukrainian Week etc). The academic bettering carried out in countries like Lithuania and Finland spawned his encyclopedic character and determined the ramification of his intellectual interests. His bachelor’s degree in philosophy and theater, received from the Lithuanian State Conservatoire (presently the “Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre”) in 1985 was followed by a master’s degree program in philosophical studies at the University of Vilnius (1987). From the same university he took his first doctorate in philosophy and the humanities, with a thesis about the culture in crisis and the philosophy of culture in the views of O. Spengler, A. J. Toynbee and L. Mumford (1990). This was soon to be followed by a second doctorate, received from the University of Helsinki, with a thesis dwelling on the relation between ideology and utopia, moral imagination and cultural criticism in the 20th century (1999).