The Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIB) Collection features books and films that foster dialogue around diversity, inclusion, and belonging at HKS while representing the many identities and backgrounds in our vibrant HKS community. The DIB Collection highlights the direct experiences of those who have faced systemic marginalization, focusing on novels, poetry, literary nonfiction, memoirs, and essays.

The DIB Collection is driven by the HKS community. We extend particular gratitude to our key partners in the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (ODIB) and the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability (IARA) Project.

Featured Collection Items

March is Womens History Month.

Cover of How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective

The Combahee River Collective, a group of radical black feminists, was one of the most important organizations to develop out of the anti-racist and womens liberation movements of the 1960s and 70s. In this collection, founding members of the organization and contemporary activists reflect on the legacy of its contributions to black feminism and its impact on todays struggles.

Cover of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity

In the updated second edition of Whipping Girl, Julia Serano shares her powerful experiences and observations -- both pre- and post-transition -- to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole.

Cover of Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts

Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour de force that tells the story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Halls efforts to uncover the truth about these warriors who, until now, have been left out of the historical record. Hall constructs the likely pasts of women rebels who fought for freedom during the Middle Passage, as well as the stories of women who led slave revolts in colonial New York.

Cover of Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement

From the founder and activist behind one of the largest movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the Me Too movement, Tarana Burke debuts a powerful memoir about her own journey to saying those two simple yet infinitely powerful words--me too--and how she brought empathy back to an entire generation in one of the largest cultural events in American history.

Copy of Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for their Rights

The ongoing struggle for womens rights has spanned human history, touched nearly every culture on Earth, and encompassed a wide range of issues, such as the right to vote, work, get an education, own property, exercise bodily autonomy, and beyond. Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists is a fun and fascinating graphic novel-style primer that covers the key figures and events that have advanced womens rights from antiquity to the modern era.

New Collection Items

Cover of Homegoing

Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th-century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising half-caste children who will be sent abroad to be educated in England before returning to the Gold Coast to serve as administrators of the Empire. Her sister, Esi, will be imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castles womens dungeon, and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, where she will be sold into slavery.

Cover of Miracles Happen: One Mother, One Daughter, One Journey

Written in alternating chapters, a mother and daughter describe the accident that nearly killed the daughter and left her paralyzed, and their determination to allow her to live life to the fullest despite her physical limitations. Brooke Ellison was an alumna of Harvard Kennedy School.

Cover of Far from the Rooftop of the World

In 2008, the Chinese government cracked down on protests throughout Tibet, and journalist Amy Yee found herself covering a press conference with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, his exile home in India. She never imagined a personal encounter with the spiritual leader would spark a global, fourteen-year journey to spotlight the stories of Tibetans in exile. Weaving a sweeping travel narrative with intimate on-the-ground reportage, Far from the Rooftop of the World tells their stories and others against the backdrop of milestones and events in Tibets recent history.

Cover of The Body keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

An expert on traumatic stress outlines an approach to healing, explaining how traumatic stress affects brain processes and how to use innovative treatments to reactivate the minds abilities to trust, engage others, and experience pleasure.

Cover of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama

Five-year-old Milad Salama is excited for the school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a semitrailer in a horrific accident. His father, Abed, gets word of the crash and rushes to the site. The scene is chaos - the children have been taken to different hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank; some are missing, others cannot be identified. Abed sets off on an odyssey to learn Milads fate. It is every parents worst nightmare, but for Abed it is compounded by the maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must navigate because he is Palestinian.

Related Resources

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Research Guide

This guide supports research on DEI topics like race, gender, sexuality, disability, and religion.

LGBTQI+ Policy Guide

This guide supports research on LGBTQI+ policy through data sources, primary texts, and more.

Book Displays
 

Our February display for Black History Month features resources on Black resistance throughout U.S. history.

 

Our May display features resources on Asian American & Pacific Islander identities, experiences, history, politics, and activism.

 

Our October display features contemporary histories of LGBTQ identities, experiences, and activism in the U.S., plus key texts in queer theory.

 

Our November display features texts on Native American and Indigenous identities, experiences, history, politics, and activism.