Harvard Resource

A
Allen, Danielle. “Toward a Connected Society.” In Our Compelling Interests: The Value of Diversity for Democracy and a Prosperous Society, edited by Earl Lewis and Nancy Cantor, 71-105. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016. Publisher's Version
B
Banaji, Mahzarin R., and Anthony G. Greenwald. Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People. New York: Delacorte Press, 2013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

In this accessible and groundbreaking look at the science of prejudice, Banaji and Greenwald show that prejudice and unconscious biases toward others are a fundamental part of the human psyche.

Banaji, Mahzarin, R Bhaskar, and Michael Brownstein. “When bias is implicit, how might we think about repairing harm?Current Opinion in Psychology 6 (2015): 183-188. Publisher's Version
Bertrand, Marianne, and Sendhil Mullainathan. “Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination.” American Economic Review 94, no. 4 (2004): 991-1013. Publisher's VersionAbstract

We study race in the labor market by sending fictitious resumes to help-wanted ads in Boston and Chicago newspapers. To manipulate perceived race, resumes are randomly assigned African-American- or White-sounding names. White names receive 50 percent more callbacks for interviews. Callbacks are also more responsive to resume quality for White names than for African-American ones. The racial gap is uniform across occupation, industry, and employer size. We also find little evidence that employers are inferring social class from the names. Differential treatment by race still appears to still be prominent in the U. S. labor market.

Bohnet, Iris. What Works: Gender Equality by Design. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Gender equality is a moral and a business imperative. But unconscious bias holds us back and de-biasing minds has proven to be difficult and expensive. Behavioral design offers a new solution. Iris Bohnet shows that by de-biasing organizations instead of individuals, we can make smart changes that have big impacts--often at low cost and high speed.

D
Dobbin, Frank, and Alexandra Kalev. “Why Diversity Programs Fail.” Harvard Business Review, 2016. Publisher's Version
E
Edmondson, Amy. “Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams.” Administrative Science Quarterly 44, no. 2 (1999): 350-383. Publisher's Version
J
Jack, Anthony Abraham. “Culture Shock Revisited: The Social and Cultural Contingencies to Class Marginality.” Sociological Forum 29, no. 2 (2014): 453-475. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Existing explanations of class marginality predict similar social experiences for all lower-income undergraduates. This paper extends this literature by presenting data highlighting the cultural and social contingencies that account for differences in experiences of class marginality. The degree of cultural and social dissimilarity between one’s life before and during college helps explain variation in experiences. I contrast the experiences of two groups of lower-income, black undergraduates—the Doubly Disadvantaged and Privileged Poor. Although from comparable disadvantaged households and neighborhoods, they travel along divergent paths to college. Unlike the Doubly Disadvantaged, whose precollege experiences are localized, the Privileged Poor cross social boundaries for school. In college, the Doubly Disadvantaged report negative interactions with peers and professors and adopt isolationist strategies, while the Privileged Poor generally report positive interactions and adopt integrationist strategies. In addition to extending present conceptualizations of class marginality, this study advances our understanding of how and when class and culture matter in stratification processes in college.

K
Khurana, Rakesh, and et al. Report of the Committee to Study the Importance of Student Body Diversity, 2016.Abstract

The committee sought to examine and restate the benefits that the College derives – as an institution, and for its students and faculty – from student body diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity.

Report of the Committee to Study the Importance of Student Body Diversity 02-02-16.pdf
M
Matsuda-Lawrence, Kimiko. I, Too, Am Harvard. YouTube, 2014. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Performed on October 11, 2014 on the campus of Harvard College as part of the I, Too, Am Harvard Blacktivism Conference

This play is based on interviews with black undergraduate students at Harvard College conducted by Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence in the fall of 2013 and spring of 2014. All words performed by the actors are the words of real students taken from those interviews.

P
Putnam, Robert D., and David E. Campbell. American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Draws on three national surveys on religion, as well as research conducted by congregations across the United States, to examine the profound impact it has had on American life and how religious attitudes have changed in recent decades

S
Sidanius, James, Shana Levin, Colette Van Laar, and David O. Sears. “Part 3. The Impact of Specific University Experiences on Sociopolitical Attitudes and Academic Adjustment.” In The Diversity Challenge: Social Identity and Intergroup Relations on the College Campus, 183-292. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2008. Publisher's Version
W
Walton, Jonathan L., and et al. Report of the College Working Group on Diversity and Inclusion. Harvard College Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, 2015. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Mindful of the mission and aspirations described above, the Working Group on Diversity and Inclusion, in consultation with the Office of the Dean of the College,drafted a charge in May of 2014. The Working Group was to “assess Harvard College’s learning environment in order to ensure that all students benefit equally from its liberal arts educational and service mission.” The task included consulting with stakeholders across the University, incorporating research at the intersections of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other frames of identity and difference, and examining approaches at peer institutions in order to recommend models that might be applied or reimagined on Harvard’s campus.