Diversity these days is a hallowed American value, widely shared and honored. That's a remarkable change from the Civil Rights era--but does this public commitment to diversity constitute a civil rights victory? What does diversity mean in contemporary America, and what are the effects of efforts to support it? This book digs deep into those questions, Drawing on six years of fieldwork and historical sources dating back to the 1950s and making extensive use of three case studies from widely varying arenas--housing redevelopment in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, affirmative action in the University of Michigan's admissions program, and the workings of the human resources department at a Fortune 500 company.

This book offers models for institutions to move intentionally toward intersections of study abroad and multiculturalism, of race and gender and religion, and of other essential aspects of our educational programs and our students identities to open doors to new possibilities that better prepare our students for life in a diverse world, and that allow our institutions to become more efficient and effective as we strive to not simply do things better in our own separate spheres, but to do better things by working together across difference.