For too long, academics like us—white authors with safe and stable work in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia—have been allowed to remain complacent in privileged positions. As higher education works to dismantle oppressive structures and develop equitable practices in writing and publishing (as in every arena), we see new possibilities for writing within and beyond “traditional” (mostly Western, mostly white) genres that can move us closer to creating more just and more authentic institutions and educational practices.

In his book Higher Expectations, two-time Harvard president Derek Bok explores what it should mean to be liberally educated in the twenty-first century. Given the size and scope of the unprecedented challenges colleges and universities are confronting today, Bok calls for a radical reimagining of higher education grounded in the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative. This twenty-first-century vision for liberal education requires rethinking educational purposes and practices to better prepare students for global interdependence, innovation in the workplace, civic engagement, complexity, and rapid change. The key elements in a framework for high-quality learning include widely expected learning outcomes, high-impact practices that foster achievement and completion, evidence on what works for underserved students, and authentic assessments that raise and reveal the levels of learning.