To better support and promote a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community within and outside of the department, we encourage you to engage with the following educational materials.
Books
To join DCMB’s book club, please contact Kati Ellis ([email protected])

- Caste by Isabel Wilkerson - presents an impressive body of historical and current evidence pointing to the existence of a hidden caste system in America and discusses the implications of this hierarchy on health, culture, politics, and more. This book was discussed at the 2022 departmental retreat, and launched DCMB’s DEI book club. During the retreat, participants watched an interview of Isabel Wilkerson by Trevor Noah. Then they engaged in small-group discussions led with questions related to diversity and racism.
- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander – book about how the Jim Crow era has been reborn under the guise of mass incarceration
- How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi - a book described as a "21st century manual of racial ethics
Research Articles
- Bentley, A. R., Callier, S. L., & Rotimi, C. N. (2020). Evaluating the Promise of Inclusion of African Ancestry Populations in Genomics. NPJ Genomic Medicine, 5(1), 1-9.
- Weinberger, D. R., Dzirasa, K., & Crumpton-Young, L. L. (2020). Missing in Action: African Ancestry Brain Research. Neuron, 107(3), 407-411.
Other Articles
- Diversity in Science: Next Steps for Research Group Leaders
- These labs are remarkably diverse — here’s why they’re winning at science
- What does it take to make an institution more diverse?
- What Black scientists want from colleagues and their institutions
Blogs
Watch
TED Talks
- How racism makes us sick
- How to get serious about diversity and inclusion in the workplace
- What it takes to be racially literate
Documentaries
- 13th
- film by Ava DuVernay exploring the history of racial inequality in America - Forgotten Genius - PBS documentary about African-American chemist Percy Julian who broke the color barrier in chemistry. This program not only highlights Julian's trailblazing achievements but as the title of the documentary suggests, sheds light on how achievements by African-Americans in spaces dominated by non-persons of color have historically gone unrecognized or been under-celebrated
Listen
Podcasts
- NPR's Code Switch hosted by Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby
- The New York Times' 1619 hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- Yo, Is This Racist? hosted by Andrew Ti and Tawny Newsome