I went shopping from the Forbes list of Best Books on Higher Education published in 2021, for my “beach reads,” this summer.  I’ll be reading them, thinking about which might be appropriate as a Books for Breakfast selection in academic year 2022–2023.  Some of the contenders are: The Hidden Curriculum, The Evidence Liberal Arts Needs, The Attack on Higher Education,  and What Universities Owe Democracy. I’m also rereading the chapter on neoliberalism in higher ed, in Wendy Brown’s classic, Undoing the Demos—and working my way through both Presumed Incompetent, and Surviving Sexism in Academia for a second time each—thinking about how to incorporate those texts into some reading groups and development I have planned for fall.  If you read any of these books and want to recommend them for book club and development, please reach out—I’m happy to hear what you appreciated about them, and how we can engage them!

And, many of you have sent me podcast suggestions over the course of the year—and, while I’m not good at being a regular listener/consumer of that content, I intend to try to get better! Some of the podcasts I intend to tune in to regularly are: The Key: Inside HigherEd, The Prof G Pod, and Leading Improvements in Higher Ed.  I’d love to hear your recommendations for other podcasts, and for ideas about how to incorporate this kind of media into faculty development moving forward.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost