Books

Among many publications on diversity, equity, and cultural inclusion, Dr. Samuels is the author of The Culturally Inclusive Educator: Preparing for a Multicultural World (Columbia University’s Teachers Collkege Press, 2014), now in its second printing. Her latest book, The Mindfulness Effect: an unexpected path to healing, connection, and social justice (Night River Press, 2018), provides 25 mindfulness practices and activities. Check out The Mindfulness Effect Journal & Practice Planner, which offers an opportunity to reflect on the practices in the book, guiding you through creating your own plan for incorporating mindfulness into your life.

Click on each book to learn more and buy!

How can mindfulness transform your life and your impact on the world? The Mindfulness Effect invites readers on a journey of discovery and empowerment.

The Mindfulness Effect Journal & Practice Planner — This journal and practice planner provides the prompts from each of the practices and activities in the book, and offers the space to reflect and respond to them.

The Culturally Inclusive Educator:Preparing for a Multicultural World by Dena R. Samuels — The Culturally Inclusive Educator asks leaders to consider what they can do differently to create a welcoming, inclusive, and exciting environment for the 21st century.

The Matrix Reader (Book) — This book promotes a commitment to an interdisciplinary approach to teaching race, class, gender, and sexuality.

Teaching Race, Gender, Class and Sexuality (Book) — This teaching guide was designed for educators who are using The Matrix Reader in their classes. It is included with the purchase of The Matrix Reader.

Reviews of Dr. Samuels’ Latest Books

The Mindfulness Effect: An Unexpected Path to Healing, Connection & Social Justice by Dena Samuels, PhD

“In this wonderful book, the Mindfulness Effect, Dr. Samuels shares her profound internal work in tandem with her fierce commitment to social justice. She offers a path toward connection; connected to the earth, to one another, and to ourselves.”

Shakti Butler, PhD
World Trust Educational Services, Inc., Filmmaker, Speaker and Social Justice Advocate

“Dr. Samuels’ understanding of the mindfulness/humanity/justice connection offers us a lesson in how to work smarter, not harder.”

Debby Irving, author
Waking Up White & Finding Myself in the Story of Race

“The Mindfulness Effect has changed how I interact with the world and myself. I love how immediate and interactive it is! I’ve been unsure how to meditate in the past, I felt like I wasn’t doing it right… I don’t know how we would even try to resolve social justice issues without mindfulness and self-healing. I see so much more clearly how mindfulness can help me lead a happy and more meaningful life. A life that I’m choosing.”

Jaime Pederson, physical therapist

“Dena Samuels takes us straight to the heart of what is perhaps the most urgent and perplexing question facing 21st-century educators: Are we prepared to work effectively with the rapidly increasing diversity of our student population? She challenges us to confront the misperceptions of our own readiness and to examine the biases that lie beneath even our best intentions. The journey she guides us into is both profoundly discomforting and absolutely necessary.”

Gary R. Howard
Equity and School Change Consulting

“At last — an empathetic and inspiring book that says the way to educate all students more successfully is to awaken teachers’ higher awareness. Dena Samuels suggests a paradigm shift in which teachers, having seen the practices of exclusion that have been programmed into them, develop more inclusive awareness and learn to respect, hear, and ally with the growth and development of all students, including themselves.”

Peggy McIntosh
Founder and senior associate, National SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum

Dena has also contributed to these books: