Students entering OIE

The IRC is the Place to Be!

The Office of Intercultural Engagement operates a unique space on campus in the Elliott University Center—the Intercultural Resource Center (IRC). It’s a place to learn, a place to gather, a place to explore—it’s a place where every member of UNCG’s diverse community can come to share experiences and build on common ground. It creates an opportunity to make meaningful cross-cultural connections and fosters an appreciation for the rich customs and traditions brought together by every individual who steps through its doors. Located on the ground level of the EUC, the environment itself is inviting and welcoming with lots of comfortable seating for studying and conversing. There are computers for internet searching and email checking. There is an ever-expanding library of cultural resources including books, videotapes, and a wide-ranging collection of magazines with new issues arriving almost every day.

Reserve the IRC for your own special event 
The Intercultural Resource Center is open Monday – Thursday 8am-8pm and Fridays 8am-6pm. UNCG community members may request to reserve the space for events or meetings.

  1. Submit a completed online Intercultural Resource Center Reservation Request Form

NOTE: Requests are accommodated based on the schedule of events already on our calendar.

student in the irc library

Our Library

Stop by the Library so that a member of the IRC staff can assist you with your request to check out a book title, video or game. (Please Note: Magazines do not circulate.)

LIBRARY HOURS:

  • Monday through Thursday  8:00 am to 8:00 pm
  • Friday 8:00 am to 6:00 pm

Search the library catalog by keywords for book titles, videos and DVDs located in the Intercultural Resource Center or browse the IRC Libguide to see what resources are available.

  • Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement (2001).
    Edited by Bettye Collier-Thomas & V.P. Franklin (ISBN: 0814716024)
    “Sisters in the Struggle is a powerful, inspirational and insightful book that takes the reader on a journey into the lives of some of the nation’s most gifted and courageous African American women leaders, feminist organizers, and Black Power advocates.”
  • Strangers in the Land: Pedagogy, Modernity, and Jewish Identity (1999).
    Edited by H. Svi Shapiro (ISBN: 0820436895)
    “This work looks to the Jewish Identity within the realm of the U.S. educational system. This book also serves as a great tool in understanding critical pedagogy and various aspects of education.”
  • The Quilt: Cultural Voices (2007).
    Edited by Andrea R. Patterson, Regina Silverthorne, Myra M. Shird (ISBN:0757547125)
    “A series of works that incorporates cultural voices to strengthen one’s understanding of the diverse world in which we live.”
  • Memories of Carolinian Immigrants: Autobiographies, Diaries, and Letters from Colonial Times to the Present (2009).
    Edited by Andreas Lixl (ISBN: 0761844139)
    “A collaboration of works that include the comprehensive retrieval, preservation, digitization, and dissemination of documentary materials that illuminate North and South Carolina’s immigrant legacy.”
  • A Movement without Marches: African American Women and the Politics of Poverty in Postwar Philadelphia (2009).
    By Lisa Levenstein (ISBN: 0807859427)
    “Levenstein explores how African American working-class women worked to make Philadelphia’s public institutions work for rather than against their needs, interests and rights” – Alice O’ Connor
  • Black Religion: Malcolm X, Julius Lester, and Jan Willis (2008).
    By William David Hart (ISBN:0230605370)
    “Black Religion explores the complexity of the black spiritual imagination using the autobiographies of three prominent religious leaders.”
  • Casing a Promised Land: The Autobiography of an Organizational Detective as Cultural Ethnographer (1994).
    By H.L. Goodall, Jr. (ISBN: 080931942X)
    “Goodall believes that “misfits”–employees who don’t mesh with a corporation’s work environment. This book explores why these types of individuals may serve as useful scapegoats within the company.”
  • Color-Blind Justice: Albion Tourgée and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson (2006).
    By Mark Elliott (ISBN: 0195181395)
    “A seminal but nearly forgotten figure in the American Civil Rights movement receives his due in this richly detailed biography…. Elliott goes a long way toward restoring Albion Tourgée’s name to a prominent place on the list of American civil rights heroes.” –Publishers Weekly
  • Losing Heart: The Moral and Spiritual Miseducation of America’s Children (2006).
    By Svi Shapiro (ISBN: 0805857222)
    In this book Svi Shapiro speaks to a wide range of readers and explores the ideological and attitudinal functions of schools, looking especially at what is called the ‘hidden curriculum.’
  • Education and Hope in Troubled Times: Visions of Change for Our Children’s World (2009).
    Edited by H. Svi Shapiro (ISBN: 9780415994262)
    “Education and Hope in Troubled Times brings together a group of the best and most creative educational thinkers to reflect on the purpose and future of public education.”
  • Hover Crips: Cripin’ Becomes a Way of Life (2008).
    By Steven R. Cureton (ISBN: 0761838880)
    “Hoover Crips is the product of field interviews with Crip gang members in South Central Los Angeles, California. The book reveals the Hoover street gang is a community institution that significantly impacts the lifestyle choices of Black male residents.”
  • A Fatherless Child: Autobiographical Perspectives on African American Men (2009).
    By Tara T. Green (ISBN: 0826218210)
    “Colorless Soul is about a black family growing up in the liberated North. Through its simplicity one is rapidly transported through the years, the author shares her experiences as a black youth.”
  • Nineteenth-Century Black Women’s Literary Emergence: Evolutionary Spirituality, Sexuality, and Identity: An Anthology (2008).
    Edited by SallyAnn H. Ferguson (ISBN: 1433101580)
    This book looks to the emerging literary skills of Nineteenth-Century Black women through spirituality, sexuality, and overall identity.
  • The Student-Athlete’s College Recruitment Guide (2009).
    By Ashley B. Benjamin, Michael Cauthen, and Patrick Donnelly. (ISBN: 0816076634)
    “The Student-Athlete’s College Recruitment Guide” explores this behind-the-scenes information, giving students and their families an insightful look at the world of college athletics.
  • From the Plantation to the Prison: African-American Confinement Literature (2008).
    Edited by Tara T. Green. (ISBN: 0881460907)
    “This book is an examination of the various forms that African-American imprisonment, as a social, historical, and political experience, has taken.”
  • Integration Matters: Navigating Identity, Culture, and Resistance (2008).
    By C.P. Gause (ISBN: 1433102021)
    “This book beyond providing educators, parents, and students with a critique of present day educational experiences for those who are the other in America, particularly the black male conceptually integrates queer legal theory, the tenets of critical spirituality, and notions of collaborative activism to construct a blueprint for realizing academic achievement and academic success for all students.”
  • 201+ Strategies for Successfully Transforming Today’s Schools: A Resource Guide for Educational Leaders, School Administrators, Teachers, Parents, and Students (2009).
    By C.P. Gause (ISBN: 9781609100735)
    “This book is a collection of thoughts, ideas, strategies, and experiences in creating engaging, inviting and affirming learning communities for the 21st century. Strategies of successful educational leaders and instructional “best practices” for teachers across all disciplines are provided.”

There are many magazines and journals with a cultural focus that may be of assistance to your research needs.  Journal Finder is a research tool available to the UNCG community.

The MRC has physical copies of many of the magazines listed below, however they do not circulate.

  • Advocate/Out
  • In Motion
  • Insight into Diversity
  • Language
  • Latina
  • Native Peoples
  • New Mobility
  • Parabola
  • The Change Agent
  • Tribal College Journal

For Faculty and Staff

Add the Intercultural Resource Center to your list of campus assets!

You can reserve the IRC for an occasional class meeting or a special class presentation. For example, the IRC is very conducive to hosting discussion forums. A teaching station is available in the Lecture Area with comfortable seating for 28. The casual Lounge Area can accommodate 16 on our upholstered sofas and club chairs. Both areas can accommodate additional audience members using chairs from the surrounding study tables.

Use the IRC to complement your curriculum

Bring your class to view our art exhibits – two exhibits inspired by a cultural theme are mounted each semester. Also encourage your students to attend the reception in the IRC to meet the featured artists. Visiting the art exhibits and talking with the artists may serve as a vehicle to generate discussions in or outside of class.

Invite your students to join our Book Talks, monthly discussion forums facilitated by UNCG faculty authors on their own books housed in the IRC library. Utilize these publications for course assignments or class discussion.

Need ideas of in-class activities? To enhance your own culturally responsive instruction and opportunities for diversity training, browse our library holdings and place relevant book titles, videos and CDs on reserve for students to use in the IRC.

For your own professional use, the IRC library offers long-term loans and an easy process – quick service, no long lines. You may check out resources for the entire academic year and renew online.

Encourage your students to discover the IRC

Students find the IRC a great place to study, either alone or in small groups. The collaboration station for sharing laptop views with a study group has been a popular addition to our services. There are up-to-date magazines for browsing diversity topics of interest.

IRC library resources have been collected to expand students’ understanding of the beliefs, values, and experiences of culturally diverse populations, and to enhance the skills they will need to work with individuals from different cultures. We have a growing collection of resources focusing on specific cultural communities – we have resources for LGBTQ topics, African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asican/Pacific Islander and Native American heritage.

Help us make the IRC “the place to be” in the EUC!

Let us know how we’re doing! Does the IRC meet your needs? If not, let us know what we can improve or add to our services. Want to serve on the Intercultural Leadership Council and the LBGTQ+ Council? We encourage input and support from the UNCG faculty to help us establish the IRC as a great student-centered refuge on campus where all voices are welcomed and will be heard.

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