This piece is part of a series by participants in the Winter 2026 Open Knowledge Fellowship, coordinated by the Mina Rees Library. Fellows will share insight into the process of converting a syllabus to openly-licensed and/or zero-cost resources, as well as their experiences teaching undergraduate courses at CUNY.
Hart M. Zhang is a doctoral student in Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center and a Graduate Teaching Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Lehman College, CUNY. His research focuses on qualitative and ethnographic methods, particularly in the areas of urban geographies, spatializing culture, and homelessness.
My journey through the Open Knowledge Fellowship sponsored and hosted by the Mina Rees Library was joyful and productive. During winter break, connecting and collaborating with fellow instructors and colleagues on developing open educational resources (OER) was a valuable experience. The workshop proved to be not only a space for exchanging ideas, but also a critical moment to reflect on our pedagogical praxis and channel hopeful energy into everyday learning and teaching.
Bridging open access materials and open conversations in learning spaces was central to my inquiry during the fellowship. This objective emerged on the first day when news broke that the teaching of Plato had been banned in an undergraduate class in Texas. The censorship resulted from alleged “race and gender theories” in these texts. With the rising scrutiny of curricula, syllabi, and other teaching materials facing political intervention, many instructors seem to have become reluctant to openly share and discuss their course planning and materials. At the same time, it occurred to me during the workshop led by our Librarian Jill Cirasella on open access publishing that open access materials do not automatically translate into OER. Instead, creating meaningful OER necessitates intentional effort to articulate and highlight the learning values instructors see in these materials.
The first step was to actively search for openly licensed or publicly available materials.One lesson I learned through the search process was to look for multiple formats or genres of the same content. For example, a recently published book is likely copyrighted unless it has an open license. However, authors often give book talks, public lectures, or podcast interviews about the same ideas they conveyed in book form. Embracing these creatively produced forms of public scholarship allowed me to keep the same content in my teaching while often providing more accessible learning materials to students. In other words, converting my syllabus to OER didn’t replace any major works or ideas in the class, but rather enhanced the ways students could engage with these materials.
Another takeaway from participating in the Open Knowledge Fellowship was to focus on what is missing in addition to what OERs are available out there. This wasn’t obvious to me at first. As I compiled a list of open access resources for class readings and activities, I noticed a pattern: many OER on race and racism in the United States seemed dated. While these existing resources remain useful for discussing how key terms have evolved, I found that current materials reflecting recent events and ongoing debates are scarce. As much as I would like to curate the latest and most relevant material for class, this gap itself became a learning moment. Why is contemporary OER content lacking? Why has discussing these topics in public forums become increasingly difficult? I also discovered that some racial justice OER developed by ethnic studies-related programs or initiatives at universities are no longer updated or continued due to funding cuts. What is missing, then, is not just content—it represents a type of repression at the core of American fascist movements, signaling a renewed momentum at the moment.
The silencing of teaching about “race and gender ideologies” through the enforcement of a political ideology does not equate to conformist instruction itself. The conversations continue with or without OER-based learning materials. This is where I see the value of engaging with critical open digital pedagogy beyond the limitations of OER at face value—a return to what teaching and learning mean for teachers and learners. On the one hand, using OER eliminates the cost of textbooks and enhances the accessibility and affordability of learning. As teachers and co-learners, we encourage students to be curious and ask questions. It is not—and perhaps never has been—about a specific piece of text that we must rely on to facilitate conversations and develop critical thinking skills.
The highlight of the fellowship was the final day when fellows presented their works-in-progress. It was empowering to witness creative engagements and practices around OER within a variety of academic fields and disciplines. What remained with me was that fellows didn’t take existing OER for granted; they also evaluated and critiqued these materials during their reuse and remix. I cannot think of a better way to start a new semester than taking part in the Open Knowledge Fellowship coordinated by dedicated faculty and staff at the Mina Rees Library. I would encourage Graduate Center peers and colleagues to apply to upcoming cohorts, if they haven’t already. This fellowship didn’t just help me recognize the significance of teaching with OER, but more importantly invited me to treat and use open digital pedagogy as both a framework and practice to challenge ourselves as teachers and co-learners in everyday life through open conversations.
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