Reading Together: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Book Club as Residence Life Professional Development

Cultivating inclusive residential communities is an important responsibility of professional and graduate residence life staff. Meaningful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training is crucial for fostering inclusive and safe residential communities, yet there is limited empirical data on this topic. This study explores one residence life office’s DEI book club for graduate and professional residence life staff. Using interviews and focus groups, this study explored staff members’ experiences in the book club and sought to understand how staff transferred their learning to their professional work. Participants acknowledged that the book club was a valuable source of learning, fostering empathy and relationships among staff and creating a safe space to navigate sometimes difficult conversations. Participants also reported changes in their approaches to supervision and working with students, noting that they were more focused on equity and providing holistic support for their students after the experience of discussing books about racial and gender discrimination, poverty, and homelessness. The findings suggest that a book club can be a simple but meaningful way to foster conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion while developing equity-minded staff.