Resources to challenge, motivate, and educate
Books for Social Justice
The University of Michigan Press publishes books in the humanities and social sciences that seek to make sense of society and culture. As part of this work, UMP is fostering a more inclusive academic publishing program, one that supports the University's core value of diversity in support of our shared goal of equity, justice, and inclusion.
The titles and resources featured below exemplify our work so far, but we recognize that combatting exclusion is a continual work in progress. As part of the University of Michigan Library, the Press is an integral part of the Diversity Strategic Plan, which sets out the practical steps we are taking to advance this equity, justice, and inclusion mission. As a proud member of the Association of University Presses, we also support and advance its work.
Equity
Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity
Rather than link the demise of urban schools to the troubles of inner-city minority youth, the book turns this issue on its head by highlighting how urban school practices can have a devastating impact on African-American children.
Becoming Politically Engaged
Carolyn Barnes, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University and author of State of Empowerment: Low Income Families and the New Welfare State, recently spoke on the Ways & Means podcast about how government-funded programs can help parents become politically engaged.
Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education
Disability is central to higher education, and building more inclusive schools allows better education for all.
State of Empowerment: Low-Income Families and the New Welfare State by Carolyn Barnes
Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity by Ann Arnett Ferguson
The Enduring Legacy: Structured Inequality in America’s Public Schools by Mark Ryan
Strike for the Common Good: Fighting for the Future of Public Education edited by Rebecca Kolins Givan and Amy Schrager Lang
Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education by Jay Dolmage
Intellectual Empathy: Critical Thinking for Social Justice by Maureen Linker
Vitality Politics: Health, Debility, and the Limits of Black Emancipation by Stephen Knadler
Just Vibrations: The Purpose of Sounding Good by William Cheng
Justice
Clarence Lang is Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts and Professor of African American Studies at Penn State University. His research agenda broadly explores African American urban history and social movements in the Midwest and Border South.
Black America in the Shadow of the Sixties
A reassessment of the Sixties and its legacies is necessary to make better sense of black community, leadership, politics, and the prospects for social change today.
Conquering Heroines: How Women Fought Sex Bias at Michigan and Paved the Way for Title IX
University of Michigan is a leader in promoting campus diversity and supporting affirmative action in admissions all the way to the Supreme Court. But it wasn’t always so. And for the sake of the women who had inspired me, I wrote this book to make sure that the world would remember them, too.
Justice Titles
Concordance: Black Lawmaking in the U.S. Congress from Carter to Obama by Katherine Tate
Selma and the Liuzzo Murder Trials: The first Modern Civil Rights Convictions by James P. Turner
The Harvest of American Racism: The Political Meaning of Violence in the Summer of 1967 edited by Robert Shellow
Black America in the Shadow of the Sixties: Notes on the Civil Rights Movement, Neoliberalism, and Politics by Clarence Lang
#identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation edited by Abigail De Kosnik and Keith P. Feldman
Coronavirus Politics: The Comparative Politics and Policy of COVID-19 edited by Scott L. Greer, Elizabeth J. King, André Peralta-Santos, and Elize Massard da Fonseca
Coexistence in the Aftermath of Mass Violence: Imagination, Empathy, and Resilience edited by Eve Monique Zucker and Laura McGrew
The Black and White Rainbow: Reconciliation, Opposition, and Nation-Building in Democratic South Africa by Carolyn E. Holmes
Inclusion
Everybody In, Nobody Out
Everybody in, nobody out has become a mantra in trying to ensure that whatever I do is inclusive, accessible, and not reserved for the happy few.
Intellectual Empathy: Critical Thinking for Social Justice
Linker’s book stands on its own as a practical and scholarly guide to reasoning that addresses the difficult—and sometimes seemingly impossible—problem of reasoning together when people have very different viewpoints and social status.
Inclusion Titles
i used to love to dream by A.D. Carson
Of Vagabonds and Fellow Travelers: African Diaspora Literary Culture and the Cultural Cold War by Cedric R. Tolliver
Uncle Tom's Cabins: The Transnational History of America's Most Mutable Book edited by Tracy C. Davis and Stefka Mihaylova
*Robert Hayden in Verse: New Histories of African American Poetry and the Black Arts Era *by Derik Smith
Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife by Kareem Khubchandani
Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance by Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes
Singing Out: GALA Choruses and Social Change by Heather MacLachlan
Prismatic Performances: Queer South Africa and the Fragmentation of the Rainbow Nation by April Sizemore-Barber
University of Michigan Press Ebook Collection
Interested in reading more social justice titles? There are many more titles included in the University of Michigan Press Ebook Collection (UMP EBC), a comprehensive collection of the University of Michigan Press’s scholarly ebooks for sale to libraries.