The School of Public Policy is committed to creating a thriving, inclusive environment at the School, where everyone takes an active role in incorporating diversity, inclusion and belonging into their work, classroom and interactions with students and colleagues. To that end, we’re excited to share our monthly recommendations for books, poetry, documentaries, podcasts, art and more for students to refer to on their personal and professional journeys to cultivating diversity, inclusion and belonging.
In the month of May we observe Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month and Jewish American Heritage Month. To that end, here are a few recommendations from SPP staff, faculty, and members of the Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Taskforce for you to engage with this month!
ASIAN | How You See Me
"Chinese are not the same as Japanese, are not the same as Koreans, Filipinos, or Thai, or Indians..." Participant talked with people from a variety of Asian cultures about how they think the world sees them in this video.
APA Interviews & Oral Histories at the Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is a repository for a wealth of oral histories that document the vibrant cultures and histories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Asian Americans
A PBS series exploring “the history of identity, contributions, and challenges experienced by Asian Americans.”
Everything is Illuminated
Everything is Illuminated follows a young Jewish American man, who, with the help of an eccentric local, endeavors to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Ukrainian village that was ultimately razed by the Nazis.
Liberty Heights
Liberty Heights follows various members of the Kurtzman clan, a Jewish family living in suburban Baltimore during the 1950s. As teenaged Ben completes high school, he falls for Sylvia, a black classmate, creating inevitable tensions. Meanwhile, Ben's brother, Van, attends college and becomes smitten with a mysterious woman and their father tries to maintain his burlesque business.
Saving A Language You're Learning To Speak (NPR Episode)
Every two weeks, a language dies with its last speaker. That was almost the fate of the Hawaiian language — until a group of young people decided to create a strong community of Hawaiian speakers — as they were learning to speak it them themselves.
Big Shot (Podcast)
Many of the greatest stories of entrepreneurship have never been told. It’s time to change that. Big Shot is an archive and celebration of Jewish entrepreneurs who took risks, overcame the odds, and created legendary businesses that changed the game. Each episode documents the memories, culture, hardship, and chutzpah it takes to become a big shot.
Can We Talk? (Podcast)
Each month on Can We Talk? the Jewish Women’s Archive podcast team brings you stories and conversations about Jewish women and the issues that shape our public and private lives.
18 Jewish Musicians for Your (Springtime) Playlist
From AJR to Glass Animals, add these artists to your springtime soundtrack. Check out these artists here.
The long, ugly history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S.
Read this Washington Post article by Gillian Brockell.
Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now by Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Philip Wang
The timing could not be better for this intimate, eye-opening, and frequently hilarious guided tour through the pop-cultural touchstones and sociopolitical shifts of the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and beyond. Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Philip Wang chronicle how we’ve arrived at today’s unprecedented diversity of Asian American cultural representation through engaging, interactive infographics (including a step-by-step guide to a night out in K-Town, an atlas that unearths historic Asian American landmarks, a handy “Appreciation or Appropriation?” flowchart, and visual celebrations of both our "founding fathers and mothers" and the nostalgia-inducing personalities of each decade).
The White Tiger: A Novel by Aravind Adiga
The stunning Booker Prize–winning novel from the author of Amnesty and Selection Day that critics have likened to Richard Wright’s Native Son, The White Tiger follows a darkly comic Bangalore driver through the poverty and corruption of modern India’s caste society. The white tiger of this novel is Balram Halwai, a poor Indian villager whose great ambition leads him to the zenith of Indian business culture, the world of the Bangalore entrepreneur. On the occasion of the president of China’s impending trip to Bangalore, Balram writes a letter to him describing his transformation and his experience as driver and servant to a wealthy Indian family, which he thinks exemplifies the contradictions and complications of Indian society.
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Passing from the mannered drawing rooms of Pakistan’s cities to the harsh mud villages beyond, Daniyal Mueenuddin’s linked stories describe the interwoven lives of an aging feudal landowner, his servants and managers, and his extended family, industrialists who have lost touch with the land. Refined, sensuous, by turns humorous, elegiac, and tragic, Mueenuddin evokes the complexities of the Pakistani feudal order as it is undermined and transformed.
People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn
If the title makes you uncomfortable, that’s the point. Dara Horn’s nonfiction debut (she’s written multiple novels) is nothing less than a must-read. After being tapped for a long time to write essays about Jewish culture, she came to realize that they all had a theme: they were usually all about dead Jews. What was this fascination (fetishization, even) with dead Jews, while increasingly, no one cared about Jewish lives in the here and now? The result of this line of thought is this essay collection of stunning and thought-provoking essays.
Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self by Rebecca Walker
Rebecca Walker, daughter of Alice Walker and Mel Leventhal, writes about her life, growing up between two worlds that seemed to get further apart as she got older. She spends two years at a time with each parent — in NY and in San Francisco — leaving her uncertain and conflicted about where she fits in. This is an interesting look at not only Walker’s life with two very different parents, but also how she forged ahead despite neither of them being very involved (or seemingly interested in parenting).
A Different Asian American Timeline
An online tool for exploring the history of Asians and Asian Americans in land that is now the United States, starting in the 1400s.
Visit the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History
The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, presents educational programs and experiences that preserve, explore, and celebrate the history of Jews in America. Its purpose is to connect Jews more closely to their heritage and to inspire in people of all backgrounds a greater appreciation for the diversity of the American Jewish experience and the freedoms to which Americans aspire.
Check Out the Resources on the National Archives Website
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) observes Jewish American Heritage Month and recognizes Jewish contributions to American culture, history, military, science, government, and more through their collection of videos and other selected records like Albert Einstein’s Declaration of Intention to become a U.S. citizen and baseball player Hank Greenberg’s Official Military Personnel Record.