At this early stage of my doctoral studies, my research interests are still coming into focus. My research will center around the impact of diversifying general education literature offerings. Toward this overarching goal, I have completed some initial ground work.

As a preliminary approach to my intended dissertation research, I established a lack of diversity in general education literature offerings both at my institution, McPherson College (MC) and nearby, similar institutions connected to MC via the Associated Colleges of Central Kansas (ACCK). At this stage, I focused my investigation on the presence or absence of African-American literature. According to ACCK’s website (2017), this consortium of six, small private colleges allows these institutions to share services such as athletic training, professional development, and software management. In addition to MC, ACCK includes Bethel College in Newton, Kansas; Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas; Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, Kansas; Sterling College in Sterling, Kansas; and Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas. All member schools are private, have religious connections, and are within fifty miles of MC.

Exploring the 2016-17 catalogs of MC’s five fellow ACCK institutions, via the ACCK home page, I discovered that none offered a course specifically in African-American literature during that academic year. Kansas Wesleyan University and Sterling College both offered a 200-level topics course housed in their respective English departments, but the content is left open-ended; this may be a space where African-American literature can be, and perhaps has been, addressed. Tabor College offered a 300-level course titled “Ethnic/Minority Literature” during this academic year, and it is listed a counting for general education credit. Again, while African-American literature could be perhaps included in a course so titled, it does not necessarily have to be.

As a next step, I then established MC student interest in African-American literature. To gather a sampling of MC students’ thoughts regarding African-American literature and other potential literature course offerings, I constructed a cover letter and survey for which I received IRB approval.

I distributed my survey, to students taking a general education literature course in the spring 2017 semester. In total, sixty-five surveys were distributed, and fifty-one were filled out and submitted, a return rate of 78.5 percent. The respondents reported the following demographic information: 45.1 percent male and 54.9 percent female; 64.7 percent Caucasian, 17.6 percent Hispanic, 13.7 percent African-American, 1 percent American Indian/Alaska Native, and 1 percent Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander; 35.3 percent sophomores, 21.6 percent seniors, 17.6 percent juniors, 13.7 percent freshmen, and 1 percent other classification. The respondents together represented fifteen different majors (with one reporting “undecided”), but the majors most strongly represented were automotive restoration and business, each making up 19.6 percent of responses. Also of interest is that English majors, including those reporting a second major, made up 11.8 percent of responders.

Following the demographic questions, I posed three questions specifically regarding student interest in and attitudes toward African-American literature courses. In response to the first of these items, “I would enroll in an African-American literature course if one were offered by McPherson College,” 70.6 percent of respondents marked “Somewhat Agree” or “Agree.” In response to the second of these items, “I would like to see an African-American literature course offered by McPherson College,” 98 percent of respondents marked “Somewhat Agree” or “Agree.” The final item in this series of questions, “All four-year colleges and universities should offer an African-American literature course,” 98 percent or respondents marked “Somewhat Agree” or “Agree.”

Though the reinstitution of an African-American literature course at MC was the initial focus of my preliminary research efforts, I view that goal as a first step toward continuously increasing the diversity of MC’s literature course offerings, particularly those counting for general education credit. I crafted the last item on my survey with that larger goal in mind. The last item asked students to rank four courses in the order in which they would like to see them offered with “1” denoting the course of most interest and “4” the course of least interest. Students also had the option of marking “No interest in seeing any of these courses offered.” The four courses listed in the item were: women’s literature, LGBTQ literature, African-American literature, and Hispanic-American literature. Three respondents, or 5.8 percent, did mark “No interest,” but 35.3 percent marked African-American literature as their top choice; 33.3 percent marked women’s literature as their top choice; 19.6 marked Hispanic-American literature as their top choice; and 5.8 percent marked LGBTQ literature as their top choice.

In response to the insights provided by my catalog investigation and survey results, I designed a general education course in African-American literature, the syllabus for which appears as a PDF on this site. Having closely looked at which African-American authors are included in current literature syllabi at MC, I crafted my syllabus to include primarily twentieth and twenty-first century African-American authors as these voices proved absent from the syllabi I examined.

Though this preliminary research is institutionally situated, my future research will explore the impact of diversifying general education literature course offerings and contribute to the field of English in this way. My hope is that my research will support access to diverse and equitable literature course offerings at post-secondary institutions, showing such access to be not only valuable but essential to a diverse and equitable education.