This collection was curated by an ASCCC OERI discipline lead. A comprehensive list of current discipline leads is available.

Access this page directly using https://tinyurl.com/ESOERsources. The curated list provided here is intended to facilitate faculty selection of an OER text in lieu of a commercial text.

Using an openly licensed resource that is missing from the list below? If so, please let us know.

Ethnic Studies

Introduction to Ethnic Studies

Texts

• Introduction to Ethnic Studies (ASCCC OERI, Fischer, Espinoza-Kulick, Acevedo, Hodges, Leal, and Cheshire) (CC BY-NC)

  This textbook examines the development of Ethnic Studies as an academic discipline and provides relevant education centering narratives, philosophies, histories, and cultures of Black Indigenous People of Color, while countering eurocentrism and white supremacy. The content includes a comparative approach covering Africana/African American/Black Studies, Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies, Chicanx/Latinx Studies, and American Indian/Native American Studies.

  

• Black Lives Matter Collective Storytelling Project (University of Washington, 2021) (CC BY-NC-ND)

  Student reflections on race, racism, and racial justice. A University of Washington, Tacoma cross-course collaboration.

  

• Latinxs and Black Lives Matter: Latinx Talk Mini-Reader #1 (Amador and Delgadillo, 2021) (CC BY-NC-ND)

  Latinx Talk Mini-Readers offers a curated selection of essays and creative work followed by discussion questions relevant to the readings. These mini-readers are made for classroom and community use.

  

Primary Sources

• San Francisco State College Strike Collection (San Francisco State University DIVA Project) (Licenses vary.) Collections include primary sources, newspaper coverage, photos, protest signs, and TV coverage of the San Francisco State College Strike for Ethnic Studies in 1968-1969.

• Digital Public Library of America/Digital Public Library in OER Commons is a database of sources with creative commons licenses. The Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are “primary source collections exploring topics in history, literature, and culture developed by educators — complete with teaching guides for class use.” You can search by topic or explore one of the subject areas listed below. All resources are licensed CC BY.
  • Early Chinese Immigration to the US.
  • The Black Power Movement
  • The American Indian Movement, 1968-1978
  • American Indian Boarding Schools
  • Immigration and Americanization, 1880-1930  
  • Japanese American Internment during World War II
  • Mexican Labor and World War II: The Bracero Program
• Calisphere provides free access to unique and historically significant artifacts for research, teaching, and curious exploration. Some sources in Calisphere are not openly licensed. The collections in Calisphere have been digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and other important libraries, archives, and museums throughout the state. Discover over two million photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more. For Ethnic Studies disciplinary content, visit Calisphere: Ethnic Studies Library.

Course Resources

Not all sources below reflect Ethnic Studies disciplinary content, but these sources may be useful in part for instructors looking to create and adapt OER materials for their courses

• Race, Crime and Citizenship in American Law (Ghachem) – MIT Open Courseware (CC BY-NC)
  This seminar “looks at key issues in the historical development and current state of modern American criminal justice, with an emphasis on its relationship to citizenship, nationhood, and race/ethnicity.”
• Race and Racism (Sally Haslanger) – MIT Open Courseware (CC BY-NC-SA)
  This course in MIT’s Topics in Social Theory and Practice series explores race and racism in the United States; the courseware includes a syllabus, list of readings (some linked), lecture notes, and assignments.

Resources

• Writing About Race (Sarah King) – MIT Open Courseware (CC BY-NC-SA)
  “The very notion of what constitutes race remains a complex and evolving question in cultural terms. In this course we will engage this question head-on, reading and writing about issues involving the construction of race and racial identity as reflected from a number of vantage points and via a rich array of voices and genres. Readings will include literary works by such writers as Toni Morrison, Junot Diaz, and Sherman Alexie, as well as perspectives on film and popular culture from figures such as Malcolm Gladwell and Touré.”

Critical Race Theory

• Critical Race Theory, Methodology, and Semiotics: The Analytical Utility of a “Race” Conscious Approach for Visual Qualitative Research (Stefan Lawrence and Kevin Hylton, 2022) – Cultural Studies <-> Critical Methodologies (CC BY)
  This article explores the use of Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a methodological framework for visual qualitative research, emphasizing the need for race-conscious approaches to analyze racialized experiences and structures in contemporary visual culture. It highlights the potential of CRT to challenge and deconstruct racial hierarchies perpetuated through digital and visual media, advocating for its broader application in qualitative research methodologies.
• Critical race theory: What it is and what it isn’t (David Miguel Gray, 2021) – The Conversation (CC BY-ND)
  David Miguel Gray’s article “Critical race theory: What it is and what it isn’t” provides a clear explanation of critical race theory (CRT), emphasizing its focus on how racial oppression has been embedded in U.S. legal and social systems. This detailed historical context and clarification of common misconceptions about CRT are valuable for Ethnic Studies instructors in helping students understand the theory’s academic foundations and its relevance to ongoing discussions about race and equality in America.
• Talking Back: An Analysis of the Scope and Impact of Critical Race Theory and Its Usage in Educational Research (Jeremiah Young and colleagues, 2023) – SAGE Open (CC BY)
  This article provides a bibliometric analysis of how Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been utilized in educational research over the past 27 years. The study’s comprehensive review, employing methods such as citation analysis and social network analysis, highlights CRT’s significant influence on educational scholarship and counters political rhetoric by demonstrating that CRT is primarily an academic framework used to understand and address systemic racism in education, making it a valuable resource for Ethnic Studies instructors.

Ethnic Studies for Educators

Texts

With the growth of Ethnic Studies in K-12 and higher education, many programs are emphasizing both pedagogical content in Ethnic Studies, and creating professional development opportunities for emerging Ethnic Studies educators. Resources in this section may be appropriate for a specific course like, “Ethnic Studies for Educators,” and may be generally useful for Ethnic Studies faculty, instructors, and administrators.

• Ethnic Studies Pedagogies – Open Access (Authors Retain Copyright)
  Ethnic Studies Pedagogies is a new open access online journal committed to critical race, decolonial, and ethnic studies movements, bridging public pedagogies with K-12 contexts. Ethnic Studies Pedagogies provides open access to its content on the principle that knowledge is not a commodity but a human resource which, by making it freely and publicly accessible, can be used to further human learning and the transformation of society. All submissions are reviewed by editorial board members, scholars, together with teachers and community members. Content by scholar-activists, educators, organizers, and students includes scholarly research, archival histories, action research pedagogies, testimonios, photo essays, and art.

• Frontiers in Education (Various Authors) – Frontiers Publishing Partnerships (Open Access)
  Frontiers in Education is a multidisciplinary, academic journal that focuses on addressing global educational challenges, including policy and practice, to provide thoughtful, research-based insights into improving educational outcomes for all. All articles are open access and instructors may also benefit from the other open access journals available from the Frontiers Publishing Partnerships https://www.frontiersin.org/journals

African American Studies

Introduction to African American Studies

Texts

The texts included here are appropriate for a history course focusing on the African American experience. Supplemental materials would be needed for an African American Studies, or Black Studies course taught from an Ethnic Studies perspective.

• Introduction to African American Studies: An Anthology of Essays on Radical Black Thought, Intellect, and Culture (Jimenez, Mahnzili, Monroy, Phillips, and Wilkins, ASCCC OERI) (CC BY-NC)

  Introduction to African American Studies is a groundbreaking Open Educational Resource (OER) that provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary exploration of Black Studies. Drawing from Africana Studies, Black Feminism/Womanism, Black Psychology, and Cultural Studies, this anthology amplifies the voices of activists, scholars, artists, and clinicians working to challenge anti-Blackness and reclaim the intellectual traditions of Afrikan American communities. By centering Black life and knowledge, this collection examines abolitionist thought, cultural memory, and the transformative power of Black intellectual traditions. It addresses historical erasure, systemic oppression, and the ongoing struggle for justice, providing students with a critical foundation in the discipline. As the first freely available OER of its kind, this text ensures equitable access to Black Studies at a time when such scholarship is increasingly under attack. Engaging, thought-provoking, and deeply rooted in social justice, Introduction to African American Studies is an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand and contribute to the discourse on Black radical thought, intellect, and culture.

  

• Slavery to Liberation: The African American Experience (Joshua Farrington et al., 2019)

  Slavery to Liberation: The African American Experience (Joshua Farrington et al., 2019) in LibreTexts (CC BY-NC)
  This text gives instructors, students, and general readers a comprehensive and up-to-date account of African Americans’ cultural and political history, economic development, artistic expressiveness, and religious and philosophical worldviews in a critical framework.

  

• African American History (Lumen) in LibreTexts (Licenses vary.)

  This resource provides historical material that offers context for African American experiences, ranging from African heritage to the days following the end of legalized chattel slavery in the United States in the Reconstruction era.

  

Course Resources

• Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies (DeGraff, MIT Open Courseware, 2017) (CC BY-NC-SA) This open-access course provides an introduction to Black Studies, and it includes sample assignments, presentation assignments with examples, lecture videos, and instructor insights. Note that some of the images and sources used within the courses are noted as copyrighted materials.
• African American History: From Emancipation to the Present (Holloway, Open Yale Courses, 2010) (CC BY-NA-SA)The purpose of this course is to examine the African American experience in the United States from 1863 to the present (2010). Prominent themes include the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction, African Americans’ urbanization experiences, and the development of the modern civil rights movement and its aftermath. This open course includes assignments and a reading list that could be adapted for different classroom contexts and updated with more recent material.

This page last updated on: