Resources for Diversifying Syllabi

We are dedicated to building a more diverse and inclusive intellectual community. One of the ways to promote diversity and inclusiveness in our classrooms is to modify the reading lists in our syllabi so that they include more underrepresented voices. The resources below offer a starting place for diversifying your syllabus. Learn more about our efforts toward diversity and inclusion.

Women’s Works

This website from the Australasian Association of Philosophy has an “area” tab on the left, which has about twenty links to different areas of study. Each link provides an author’s name, a list of relevant papers, key terms, and an abstract for the paper, as well as citation information. The abstracts make this a valuable resource for finding relevant articles without having to read through all of the articles.

Diversifying Syllabi

This website has a “reading list” tab. The reading list has a variety of topics with about five articles per topic from underrepresented authors. Clicking on the author and their article will link to a summary of the article, including readability for undergraduates, thesis, key terms, and complementary readings. Some summaries may have more information than this, and some may have less.

Diversity Reading List

This website helps you to include authors from under-represented groups in your lessons. The website has a bar on the left side labeled “categories” with options of value theory, metaphysics & epistemology, science, logic, mathematics, history of Western philosophy, various philosophical traditions (Asian, Continental, so on), and miscellaneous. Under each category are subcategories, e.g., metaethics, philosophy of language, etc. And within each subcategory are the articles. There are a few articles for many topics, but some only have one. When clicking on the article, a text box will appear with key terms, author, and citation information. 

Readings by Female Authors Used in Introduction to Philosophy Classes

This is a collection of readings by female authors put together by Timothy O’Keefe of Georgia State University. There are a couple of dozen papers organized under different branches of philosophy. Some of the articles have links, but this webpage should not be used for sourcing.

The Up Directory

This website is designed to help you find specific authors from underrepresented groups. There is a “specializations” tab, which will display underrepresented philosophers who work in a specific area of philosophy. There is also a “self-identification” tab, which is helpful if, for example, you want to hear about gender from a nonbinary author. Some authors will be linked to their personal websites, but not all.

American Philosophical Association: Diversity and Inclusiveness Syllabus Collection

This website contains a number of sample syllabi that you are allowed to use with appropriate credit given to their authors. There are syllabi for traditionally underrepresented areas of philosophy (e.g., African Philosophy) and syllabi that include underrepresented voices in areas of philosophy that are not underrepresented (e.g., history of modern philosophy). The different syllabi are categorized under general headings and most syllabi contain reading lists. This could be a great resource for finding underrepresented authors in your area.