Renn, K. A., & Brazelton, G. B. (2012). Learning to Speak, Learning to Listen: How Diversity Works on Campus By Susan E. Chase Cornell University Press, 2010, 291 pages. $60 cloth, $24.95 paperback. Social Forces. doi: 10.1093/sf/sos103
“Sociologist Susan E. Chase takes on the persistent challenge of inter-group dialogue in higher education and, for the most part, succeeds in presenting a fresh perspective on how students experience diversity on campus. Learning to Speak, Learning to Listen contributes to an ongoing conversation about how to create and sustain a campus climate that supports students—both majority and underrepresented—in their attempts to engage in difficult dialogues related to race, gender and sexual orientation. Chase conducted fieldwork at the pseudonymous City University (CU), a small private university with a clearly stated diversity mission. In Chase’s interpretation, diversity was “on the table” for discussion at CU in ways that it is not at many other institutions. This distinctive campus culture made CU an ideal context in which to examine the ways that students communicated about diversity and the tensions that surrounded it. Chase concluded that CU’s “narrative environment”—as constructed in speech, media, publications, symbolic actions—was a complex system in which messages about diversity were mediated by student activism, resistance and colorblindness” (page 1).
For the complete book review: Social Forces-2012-Renn