Rozana Carducci, associate professor of education and graduate director of the Master of Arts in Higher Education program, co-edited a book recently published by Stylus Publishing.
The book titled, Contested Issues in Troubled Times, provides student affairs educators with frameworks to constructively think about and navigate the contentious climate they are increasingly encountering on campus.
The 54 contributors address the book’s overarching question: How do we create an equitable climate conducive to learning in a dynamic environment fraught with complexity and a socio-political context characterized by escalating intolerance, incivility, and overt discrimination?
Rather than attempting to offer readers definitive solutions, this book illustrates the possibilities and promise of acknowledging multiple approaches to addressing contentious issues, articulating a persuasive argument anchored in professional judgment, listening attentively to others for points of connection as well as divergence, and drawing upon new ways of thinking to foster safe and inclusive campuses.
Among the issues this volume addresses are such topics as sexual violence; historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups; transgender and undocumented students; the professional skills, knowledge and/or dispositions needed to thrive and facilitate systemic change in contemporary higher education organizations; the implications of maintaining personal and professional identities via social media; and self-care.
The book concludes with calls to action, encouraging student affairs educators to exhibit the moral courage needed to critically examine routine practices that unknowingly and knowingly perpetuate inequity and enact the foundational values and principles upon which the student affairs profession was founded.
Carducci co-edited this book with Peter M. Magolda and Macia B. Baxter Magolda, both of Miama University of Ohio.
Carducci is the graduate director of the Master of Arts in Higher Education program. She was previously at Salem State University in Salem, Massachusetts, where she served as assistant professor in the Department of Secondary and Higher Education and coordinator of the Higher Education in Student Affairs graduate program. She has dedicated herself for two decades to the practice and study of higher education leadership, and brings that wealth of knowledge and experience to Elon.