6/28/2021 William Gillespie
Professor Wooldridge's new textbook awarded "Outstanding Academic Title" recognition by Choice
Written by William Gillespie
Advancing Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice Through Human Systems Engineering, a new textbook edited by Rod D. Roscoe, Erin K. Chiou and ISE Professor Abigail R. Wooldridge (CRC Press, 2020), has been selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice, a publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.
About the book, Choice writes:
This book, organized by three editors who are university professors of engineering, brings together work by 43 contributing authors, arranged in three sections: “Understanding and Supporting Healthy Communities,” “Including and Empowering Diverse People,” and “Inspiring Strategies for an Inclusive Future.” The discipline of human systems engineering (HSE) tackles human-centered problems from an engineering perspective. But, the editors advise, “designing for sameness has set us back centuries … in terms of social justice.” Keywords addressed by contributors under the notion of diversity include “disabled,” “elderly,” “race,” “skin color,” “gender,” and “LGBTQ.” As the papers show, inclusion requires actively recognizing, welcoming, and respecting diverse perspectives by design. “Social justice” as conceptualized in this volume means dismantling systems that create injustice while building systems that promote diversity and inclusion. “Equity” (striving for equal outcomes) is emphasized, while “equality” (equal treatment) is shown to be a distraction. Social justice requires equal outcomes if possible. Scenarios addressed include health care, education, and the workplace, but there is scant coverage on crime and policing or climate change. Some discussion of implicit bias, transgender bathrooms, and benefits for same-gender partners appears.