The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Team Monthly Picks

Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet
by Thich Nhat Hanh
 
“To meditate is to be aware of what is going on…Once you know what is going on, you’re motivated by the desire to do something to relieve the suffering – both in you and around you.”
 
Having a clear understanding of your personal and collective awareness will allow you to focus on your community and the inequities that persist in it. This quote helps me to focus on better supporting my community and its needs.

– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

"In celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, I would like to highlight the Lantern Stories project in San Francisco’s Chinatown. This art installation by Yu-Wen Wu features 29 lanterns illustrated with stories of the Chinese community in San Francisco. From immigration during the California Gold Rush to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and Angel Island to AAPI activism in the time of COVID-19 as well as stories of entrepreneurship, life, traditions, and notable figures, this project sheds light on the experiences of the Chinese American community in San Francisco over the years. You can read more about Lantern Stories here or visit in person on the 600 block of Grant Avenue!"

- Jessica Ip, Diversity Programs and Events Coordinator

"For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, there are two folks/ideologies that I wanted to uplift. First, Grace Lee Boggs in the book The Next American Revolution wrote a chapter titled “A Paradigm Shift in Our Concept of Education” which has been helpful for me to think through what type of education I aspire to create. Boggs articulates an education that “transforms human relations” by eliminating the hierarchal model of producing “morally sterile technicians” and building a space of creativity, horizontal learning, and community building.

"Secondly, I would like to highlight the work of Haunani-Kay Trask who helped me understand some of the history of Hawai’i in the book From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i. Generally, my belief is that the great majority of people in the United States are unaware of the history of Hawai’i and what has now led to the exploitative industry that is tourism on this land. After visiting Hawai’i and seeing its beauty, Haunani-Kay Trask has challenged me to rethink if I could ever again in good faith visit Hawai’i given the historical background of how this came to be and the current demands by native Hawaiian people."

– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

It is my wish to highlight the meaningful work of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC) in honor of AAPI Heritage Month this year. APSC is an Oakland-based organization that provides direct support to Asian and Pacific Islander prisoners, facilitates Ethnic Studies programs at prisons, and brings attention to injustices that AAPI communities, especially Southeast Asian communities, face along the educational-prison-deportation pipeline. As with many communities of color in the U.S., Southeast Asian children who fled war become marginalized similarly: failed by the educational system, multigenerational poverty, racial profiling, and mass incarceration. The school-to-prison pipeline may result in deportation and family separation for immigrant youth who haven't naturalized. Check out ARRIVING: Freedom Writings of Asian and Pacific Islanders on the APSC website to learn more about the stories written by API individuals in prison, detained by ICE, or recently released from prison. In addition, check out stories from impacted family members.

- Shinyi Hsieh, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2022-2023

In honor of Earth Day, I wanted to revisit my very first selection, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plant. This book taught me about the power of connection through nature and science. As an Indigenous scientist, author Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer shared beautiful stories of her reciprocal relationships to nature and living beings and the importance of connections and community. Over the course of the last two years, I have been working towards having reciprocal relationships with nature and honoring all life. This book was, and remains, a profound read for me, in the context of building, sustaining, and advocating for our communities."

– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

Last year while listening to the Black Myth’s Podcast, I was made aware of the depths of the relationship between African wildlife conservation and colonialism. In an interview with Dr. Aby L. Séne of Clemson University, the podcast discussed how western conservation is an outgrowth of colonialism. I would recommend folks read Dr. Séne’s article "Land grabs and conservation propaganda" which challenged me to think about how practices of western conservation (including tourism) maintain the exploitation of African land, people, and wildlife.

- Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

This month, I want to introduce Refusing Death by sociologist Nadia Y. Kim. This book examines the environmental justice movement from the intersectional perspective of race, gender, class, and citizenship. Refusing Death tells the story of a grassroots environmental justice movement led primarily by Asian and [email protected] undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles. Being an immigrant myself, I am respectfully inspired by the fact that these female activists, who are often racialized as foreigners and "illegals" and marginalized by the electoral process, are doing remarkable things to fight environmental injustice, including disproportionate air pollution, toxic contamination, and physical and emotional health harms. Despite these structural barriers, they continue to organize for environmental justice. By focusing on the margins, this book also shows how these immigrant women activists provide emotional support for the community, an innovative strategy to fight environmental racism and classism.

- Shinyi Hsieh, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2022-2023

I would like to recommend There’s Something in the Water (2019), directed by Elliot Page and Ian Daniel. This documentary explores environmental racism in Nova Scotia, Canada through the stories and experiences of Indigenous and Black Nova Scotian women fighting to protect their communities. Louise shares how the decision to put a toxic landfill in Shelburne has led to disproportionately high cancer rates and deaths in her community. Michele shares how the decision to build a paper mill in Pictou Landing and use their local harbour to dump its toxins has affected the Mi’kmaq community’s water quality, air quality, fishing and way of life. Mi’kmaw grandmothers in Stewiacke share about their work to stop Alton Gas from dumping tonnes of salt brine into their local river. After watching this documentary, I am interested in learning more through reading the book the film was based on, There’s Something in the Water by Dr. Ingrid R. G. Waldron.

- Jessica Ip, Diversity Programs and Events Coordinator

In celebration of Women’s History Month, I’m featuring Black Women and Social Justice Education: Legacies and Lessons, edited by Stephanie Y. Evans, Andrea D. Domingue, and Tania D. Mitchell. This book is a compilation of stories that feature the historic role that Black women have played in social justice and in education.  There was so many stories and history that I was eye-opening. Each story is incredibly powerful and rich with information and strategies on how Black women have led social justice movements in higher education and communities. As a Black woman who leads social justice efforts in higher education, these stories were empowering, and they help me to fully understand and live the deep and incredible legacies of Black women in higher education.

– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

This Women’s History Month I would like to celebrate the life and work of Claudia Jones. Buried in a plot immediately to the left of Karl Marx’s tombstone, her final resting place is a physical representation of her belief system. Just a few days ago, I read a tweet from @citeblackwomen quoting scholar Carole Boyce Davies stating that Jones “linked local struggles of Black people and women against racism and sexist oppression to international struggles against colonialism and imperialism. Thus she saw these as interconnected in a dynamic set of interactions”. Jones’ sharp political analysis can be read in her seminal article An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!.

- Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

This month, I would like to amplify the ongoing reproductive justice movement in both the U.S. and my home country Taiwan. Black Women Birthing Justice (BWBJ) provides birthing education in Oakland and engages in healthcare policy reform. In 2018, BWBJ published The Battling Over Birth: Black Women and The Maternal Health Care Crisis in California. In this report, BWBJ points out the history of racial disparities in maternal healthcare; and in addition, it documents individual childbirth stories by black women and identifies best practices based on their experiences. In Taiwan, by restoring midwifery practices and female-centered care during pregnancy and childbirth, the Birth Empowerment Alliance of Taiwan (BEAT) aims to change over-medical maternity care established during the 20th century modernization project on this island. On both sides of the Pacific Ocean, women face similar reproductive injustices over the medicalization of childbirth and medical racism which have historical roots behind them. A shared vision drives female advocates to fix the historical injustice and to transform birthing experiences through collective care and empowerment during pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and postpartum.

– Shinyi Hsieh, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2022-2023

This Women’s History Month, I am interested in reading The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston. I came across this book when I was searching for books set in the city of San Francisco as part of a personal reading challenge. Published in 1976, The Woman Warrior is a collection of stories, part memoir and part Chinese folk tale, detailing the lives of five Chinese women: the No-Name Woman, Fa Mu Lan, Kingston’s mother, Kingston’s aunt and Kingston herself. It touches on themes of immigration, identity, intergenerational conflict and gender roles. The Woman Warrior was published at a time when there were very few narratives of Asian American experiences, let alone the experiences of Asian American women. Therefore, I hope to take some time this month to read this trailblazing book and also learn more about the impact of Maxine Hong Kingston’s work on American literature, and specifically, the genre of Asian American literature.

– Jessica Ip, Diversity Programs and Events Coordinator

One of the very special books that I read in 2022 was Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation Through Rage by Lama Rod Owens, and this book serves as my selection to honor Black History Month. In Love and Rage, Lama Rod Owens, a Black queer Buddhist, highlights the very important relationships between anger, rage, and love, and provides wonderful and practical guidance on how to manage this nuanced relationship, especially as it relates to social justice engagement. I remember reading this book so rapidly, engulfing every word, every letter, feeling like my relationship with anger, rage, and injustice was flawed (prior to reading this book). Instead, Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation Through Rage provides passionate justice- and community-oriented readers with the space that they need to process the importance of anger and rage, as well as understand how both emotions are central to love and life, and how to remain a whole person in life while engaging in social justice work. I love this book and highly recommend it to celebrate Black History Month!

– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

To celebrate the Black History Month this year, I would like to honor the legacy of the Combahee River Collective (1974–1980). It was one of the most significant activist and intellectual movement founded by the Black lesbian feminists in the 1970s who believed in equality and solidarity while fighting for their rights due to multiple layers of oppressions. The Combahee River Collective has a profound impact on the development of intersectionality or intersectional feminism today. According to the Combahee River Collective Statement (1977), “we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking. The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives.” As a JEDI practitioner, I have been so inspired by their pioneering vision and grassroots organizing efforts.

– Shinyi Hsieh, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2022-2023

I have to thank Graduate Division’s previous Rosenberg-Hill fellow Dr. Antoine Johnson for “putting me on” Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 by W.E.B. Du Bois. Dr. Antoine called it one of the most important books I would ever read, and I couldn’t agree more. I loved Du Bois detailing of the history on topics such as the general strike against slavery and abolition democracy. In what can be a fairly intimidating book, I also listened to video from a study group break down these very complex ideas and often the conversation would center on how this history can apply to our movements for freedom today. This Black History Month, I am looking forward to continuing to learn about our history and how that power strengthens our future.

 – Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

This Black History Month, I would like to take the opportunity to celebrate the career and impact of New-York based artist, Kara Walker. Kara is known for using black paper cutouts to create room-sized tableaus depicting realities of the pre-Civil War American South. Her work explores themes of race, gender, sexuality and power. I first encountered Kara’s work in a feminist theory classroom and later had the opportunity of seeing a selection in person at The Broad. I found Kara’s cutouts very powerful because of her use of a simple medium and color palette to detail and bring forward conversation on the history of anti-Black racism in America. I recommend checking out a selection of Kara’s works in-person at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art or online here.

– Jessica Ip, Diversity Programs and Events Coordinator

As I reflect on what I am grateful for in 2022, I am forever grateful for my December 2021 selection: Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks. This book is and continues to be so eye-opening and affirming for me as an educator. I’m currently an instructor for two graduate courses – GRAD202: Racism in Science and GRAD210: Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Academic Leadership – and the deep teachings and wisdom in Teaching to Transgress focused on the importance of providing and offering a teaching and learning environment, where all students and the instructors are responsible for a learning environment that ‘respects and cares for the souls of our students’, and where risk taking and vulnerability are rewarded and serve as an important element to empower students to learn and challenge one another and the instructor. I believe all educators should read and incorporate lessons from Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks. Thank you bell hooks for sharing your inspiring wisdom to support the education of society’s future generations of leaders.

– Dr. D’Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

I am grateful for the scholars of African descent that have researched the histories of African peoples. Growing up, my school teachings of African people were limited to very brief topics of slavery, the civil war, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, and then present day “free” Black people. This past year, I read books that discussed the history of Africa and the Americas. Although a year hasn’t been nearly enough time to read the many important texts, one foundational book that helped me understand the connections between African people on the continent and those dispersed throughout the world has been How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney. Rodney, from Guyana, provides a thorough analysis of how colonialism and neocolonialism by European nations have exploited the resources of Africa that have prevented the natural development of Africa and African people.

 – Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

– Shinyi Hsieh, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2022-2023

This month, I would like to highlight Becca Rea-Tucker who is the creator behind the Instagram account @thesweetfeminist. Becca’s account first caught my attention because of her colorful cakes decorated with messages that aim to destigmatize abortion and advocate for abortion access. As the weather gets colder, I have been increasingly grateful for Becca’s new cookbook, Baking by Feel! The recipes in this cook book are divided into 5 categories: happy, anxious, hopeful, sad and mad. Some recipes I recommend are the coffee-glazed cinnamon rolls (for when you're feeling bored!) and Becca’s brownies (for when you're feeling lost!). However you are feeling this holiday season, I hope these recipes can meet you where you're at.

– Jessica Ip, Diversity Programs and Events Coordinator

Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Landscapes through Indigenous Science by Dr. Jessica Hernandez is my feature for this month! This book is on my reading list, and I was excited to read about the complex and beautiful connections between land, environmental justice, community, and healing, through the lens of indigeneity. I think this book is an essential read especially for the protection of Mother Earth and our people.

– Dr. D’Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

Last week, I was fortunate enough to visit Puerto Rico as a part of the SACNAS conference – a trip that was transformational for me in many ways. In our monthly picks, we are often sharing what we’ve learned through different mediums most often through reading. One form of learning that is often underappreciated in the academic world is learning through oral histories. On the trip, a Puerto Rican student and her cousin shared with us the story of Pedro Albizu Campos. Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican Black man who fought for Puerto Rican independence and human rights. Because of his political position, Pedro Albizu Campos was imprisoned and tortured by the U.S. government.

In hearing this story, I could not shake the parallels that I saw with American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier. In Peltier’s book, Prison Writings, the book tells of the political repression by the U.S. government for his commitment to indigenous sovereignty and liberation. These similarities reinforced to me that the struggles for liberation and justice are so intimately interconnected regardless of the physical distance or the cultural differences. I encourage you to learn about both men and the movements they stood for and to continue the practice of learning through oral histories. 

 – Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

To celebrate the Native American Heritage Month, I want to introduce Wahpepah’s Kitchen — Chef Crystal Wahpepah’s restaurant serving indigenous cuisine in East Oakland in 2021. Chef Crystal uses native ingredients to pass the food and knowledge onto the communities. Chef Crystal does not only take us “through experiencing food, to acknowledge that we live on stolen land”; she also adds her lived experience, as a Kickapoo Native American and also African American from East Oakland, to her inspirational food creation. 

Visit Wahpepah’s Kitchen:
3301 East 12th St., Suite #133, Oakland, CA, 94601

– Shinyi Hsieh, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2022-2023

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, I would like to share a poem titled “I Walk in the History of My People” by Menominee writer and two-spirit activist, Chrystos. In this poem, Chrystos discusses the history of their ancestors and the pain that their body holds in response to this history and trauma. The last line in particular stands out to me: "My knee is wounded / see / How I Am Still Walking".

– Jessica Ip, Diversity Programs and Events Coordinator

Black Women’s Yoga History: A Memoir of Inner Peace by Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans is my selection for Mental Health Awareness month. This book was recommended to me by Dr. Antoine Johnson, our former Rosenberg-Hill Fellow. I absolutely fell in love with this book, and the connections it makes to black women’s’ pain, trauma, and fears, and the importance that yoga has played in black women’s restoration and healing. After reading this book, I hugged the book several times, as it felt like it was a refuge of affirmation of my life experiences that have deeply impacted me in mind, body, spirit, and connection. We can all learn from the stories and history highlighted in Black Women’s Yoga History: A Memoir of Inner Peace and protect our mental health and well-being. The time is now to protect our mental health.

– Dr. D’Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

This month I would like to recommend the show Reservation Dogs. A comedy about young Indigenous folks living on a reservation in Oklahoma, one central theme is mental health. Specifically, the show unpacks the topic of death by suicide. With mental health, we tend to attribute our well-being to us as individual people. However, Reservation Dogs shifts that narrative to demonstrate that a community’s mental health is impacted by social structures such as settler colonialism. This group of friends works towards finding well-being through building community and relying on the wisdom of their ancestors and elders.

 – Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

For the National Mental Health Awareness Day, I would like to highlight a recent publication Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans written by Dr. Jenny T. Wang, a Taiwanese American clinical psychologist and activist who works on mental health and racial trauma within the Asian American diaspora and immigrant community. She is also the founder of @asiansformentalhealth on Instagram and the Asian therapist directory: https://asiansformentalhealth.com. In this book, Dr. Wang illustrates the mental health effects of the Asian cultural frameworks coupled with the model minority myth in the mainstream that reinforces the shameful feeling for AAPI to discuss mental health and triggers a sense of guilt while setting healthy boundary with family. I love how Dr. Wang goes beyond analytical examinations, further encouraging readers to reclaim the idea of permission so we can all give ourselves permission to work through guilt, to talk about feelings and emotions that were not encouraged to be discussed in our culture, and to craft a sense of belonging for ourselves and our community.

– Shinyi Hsieh, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2022-2023

In honor of World Mental Health Day this month, I would like to share the To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) podcast. TWLOHA is a nonprofit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self injury and suicidal ideation. I love their podcast series because it features diverse voices on a wide range of mental health topics that are often stigmatized and brushed under the table. There is so much power in open and honest conversation and I’m grateful that the TWLOHA podcast creates space for this to take place.

– Jessica Ip, Diversity Programs and Events Coordinator

“This month I want to highlight the work of Gloria Lucas, a Xicana woman and founder of Nalgona Positivity Pride. As an activist, she specializes in intersectional eating disorder education, creating digital media, and fostering grassroots eating disorder activism. Nalgona Positivity Pride is an 'in-community eating disorders and body-positive organization dedicated in creating visibility and resources for Black, Indigenous, communities of color (BICC).' It is rooted in 'Xicana indigenous feminism and DIY punx praxis,' offering community and resources. I highly recommend checking out their social media and especially the events and webinars that they host.”

– Rebecca Wolfe, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

"For the month of September, Latinx Heritage Month, I'd like to feature An African American and Latinx History of the United States by scholar Paul Ortiz. I must admit I have not read this book yet, but what drew me to this book is the importance of understanding how the rich and complex history of African American and Latinx communities was and is pivotal in the transformation of U.S history. As the co-instructor of GRAD202: Racism in Science, the content described in this book is relevant to our PhD students in-training."

– Dr. D’Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

"I would like to introduce Latina Teachers: Creating Careers and Guarding Culture by Glenda M. Flores (NYU Press, 2017). Based on ethnography and interviews with teachers and parents at the two multiracial school sites in Compton and Rosemead, Dr. Flores illustrates the crucial impact of a historical moment in California as a swiftly growing number of Latinas enter the teaching profession. This book illuminates how Latina educators, as ‘cultural guardians,’ revolutionarily leverage their ethnic culture into the classroom and challenge the norms in their teaching profession. I appreciate how Dr. Flores describes these Latina educators’ commitment to innovative teaching methods came from a sense of empathy grown from being first-gen, daughters of working class and/or poor immigrants. This book exposes me to the transformation the Latina teachers have brought to the Latino/x students, parents, and the U.S. educational system."

– Shinyi Hsieh, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2022-2023

"To celebrate this Latinx Heritage Month, I am sharing the poem 'I am/Yo soy Joaquín' by activist and organizer Rodolfo 'Corky' Gonzalez. This powerful poem served as an inspirational tool for activism during the Chicano movement in the 1960s. I love how this is an example of how art can play an important role in our social movements."

– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

"I would like to share This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color which was first released in 1981. At the time, this anthology was groundbreaking for documenting experiences of women of color, and what we now know to be intersectionality. I revisited this book many times throughout my Gender Studies degree and would like to uplift the work and efforts of Chicana editors Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa for their vision and contributions to the feminist movement."

– Jessica Ip, Diversity Programs and Events Coordinator

"I’d like to feature the podcast, Small Doses with Amanda Seales – Side Effects of Juneteenth, with Actress, Comedian, and African American Studies educator Amanda Seales. In this episode, Amanda talks about the history and true importance of Juneteenth, and challenges society to critically evaluate how we honor this important time in history for African Americans and Black People in the United States. And she uses humor to drive her points, which was quite powerful!"

– Dr. D’Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

"I appreciate Margaret Kimberly in The Problem with Juneteenth for clarifying some of the popular historical inaccuracies regarding Juneteenth and addressing the commercialization of the holiday. Some of these inaccuracies are the mythology of Abraham Lincoln as the “great emancipator” and that Texans were unaware that that the civil war had ended. For many, the Black Agenda Report has been a foundational resource of news for Black people that falls in line with some of our most radical thinkers such as Claudia Jones, Malcom X, and many many more."

– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

"The Code Switch episode, On Food, Mattress Sales, and Juneteenth, taught me some things that I didn’t previously know about the history of Juneteenth. It also highly emphasizes celebration and joy, delving into Black food history with historian Rafia Zafar, and holiday food traditions with chef and cookbook author Nicole A. Taylor. The podcast also highlights some of the most beloved Black cookbooks over the years."

– Rebecca Wolfe, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

"For Juneteenth, the Overheard at National Geographic podcast featured Tara Roberts in an episode called Celebrate Juneteenth with Into the Depths. In this episode, Roberts shares her work as a scuba diver searching for sunken ships that carried enslaved Africans. This journey leads her to her family’s hometown of Edenton, North Carolina where she celebrates Juneteenth and reflects on the importance of ritual as a means of healing collective trauma and sharing ancestral stories as a source of pride. This was an educational podcast and I also appreciated how engaging it was with its many interviews and voiceovers."

– Jessica Ip, Diversity Programs and Events Coordinator

"I recently attended the book release tour for Janelle Monáe’s The Memory Librarian in San Francisco. This book is a collection of short essays and is an extension from their Dirty Computer album. I am excited to feature this book because of Janelle Monáe’s passion for liberation for Black, brown, queer, and trans people all over the world!! A must-read in honor of PRIDE month!"

– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

“Alok Vaid-Menon’s Beyond the Gender Binary is a short, simple, yet expansive book. It focuses on gender fluidity, illustrating how viewing the world of gender through a different lens can create greater freedom for everyone. In this work, they provide stories from their own perspective and experience as a gender non-conforming person, while also offering important language to combat common misconceptions about the transgender and gender non-conforming community. All in all a joyful and hopeful read for Pride Month.”

– Rebecca Wolfe, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

"The book that I would like to share is We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib. In this book, Habib shares their experience navigating racism, sexism, queer identity and parental expectations as an Ahmadi Muslim growing up in Pakistan and coming to Canada with their family as refugees. Habib’s memoir speaks to the importance of representation and is a powerful read for PRIDE month. If you are interested in learning more about Habib’s work, they are also the creator of “Just Me and Allah: A Queer Muslim Photo Project” that highlights stories of queer Muslims in North America and Europe."

– Jessica Ip, Diversity Programs and Events Coordinator

"For PRIDE, I want to highlight Billy Porter. Porter is one of the many stars of the FX series Pose which ran for three seasons. Pose is an unapologetic, Black, queer show that highlights Black ballroom culture during the 1980s and early 1990s’ iterations of the AIDS epidemic from Black perspectives. Porter has also been living with HIV for several years. In his book Unprotected: A Memoir, he shares his positive status, as well as his experiences as a Black gay-identifying person who was ostracized for their effeminacy, to which his family sent him to therapy at age five to “fix” his sexuality. During the 2021 Juneteenth celebration, the Black AIDS Institute spotlighted Porter for his advocacy around HIV/AIDS awareness and for Black LGBTQ+ folks. Porter remains a beacon for Black and queer folks – especially those who identify as Black and queer – for his unapologetic speech, fashion, acting skills, and for standing for what he believes in. He and his stories are essential to Black and queer liberation."

– Antoine S. Johnson, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

"Audre Lorde and Sylvia Rivera challenged the mainstream ideas that people exist solely as a Black or Latinx person or solely as a Queer or Trans person. Both Lorde and Rivera demonstrated that these struggles are intimately interconnected and provided us with models to approach liberation that are also connected. In the essay, 'The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,' Lorde challenged the US mainstream approach in academia to feminism and queer liberation that utilized the tactics of racism and capitalism. Similarly, Rivera, in the speech 'Y’all Better Quiet Down Now', critiques a politic of PRIDE that “belongs to a middle-class white club” and ignores the needs of those racialized folks being subjected to sexual violence and incarceration. I appreciate Lorde and Rivera for their unwavering positions."

– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

"For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, there are two folks/ideologies that I wanted to uplift. First, Grace Lee Boggs in the book The Next American Revolution wrote a chapter titled “A Paradigm Shift in Our Concept of Education” which has been helpful for me to think through what type of education I aspire to create. Boggs articulates an education that “transforms human relations” by eliminating the hierarchal model of producing “morally sterile technicians” and building a space of creativity, horizontal learning, and community building.

"Secondly, I would like to highlight the work of Haunani-Kay Trask who helped me understand some of the history of Hawai’i in the book From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i. Generally, my belief is that the great majority of people in the United States are unaware of the history of Hawai’i and what has now led to the exploitative industry that is tourism on this land. After visiting Hawai’i and seeing its beauty, Haunani-Kay Trask has challenged me to rethink if I could ever again in good faith visit Hawai’i given the historical background of how this came to be and the current demands by native Hawaiian people."

– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

From Blossoms
by Li-Young Lee

“A college friend introduced me to Li-Young Lee’s poem From Blossoms on a dorm room floor a long time ago. I loved it then, and I love it now. This poem has stuck with me and become something that I reach for when I need to remember my hope and humanity. It reminds me to embrace my mortality, the wholeness of life, and the sense of community that can be found in recognizing that you are small—just one tiny part of a wide, complex wide world.

"If you prefer an audio version of this poem, the podcast Poetry Unbound has a lovely, short episode on it.”

– Rebecca Wolfe, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

"For Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I would like to feature the book Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by San Francisco Bay Area activist Alice Wong. This book is currently on my bookshelf, and I intend to read it to celebrate and honor the many contributions of Asian American Pacific Islander members of society."

– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

"For AAPI Heritage Month, I want to amplify Grace Lee Boggs and Yuri Kochiyama. Both women have been strong advocates and contributors to the Black freedom movement from the 1960s until their transition. Boggs was particularly influential in labor organizing during the Black Power Movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Both her and her husband, the radical theorist James Boggs, helped Detroit workers unionize and contextualize their labor as part of the Black freedom struggle. The Boggs’s also held reading groups in the living room of their home. The actor and activist Danny Glover used to call it “Boggs University.

"Yuri Kochiyama was a great friend of Malcolm X/el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. She served as a member of his group the Organization of Afro-American Unity and was present on stage the day of his assassination. With the waves of anti-Black racism and anti-Asian racism since the murder of George Floyd, it is appropriate to highlight historical examples of Black-Asian solidarity."

– Antoine S. Johnson, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

"When the topic of climate change was suggested for April’s reading selection, the first thing I thought of was Indigenous Peoples’ ongoing struggle to save the earth from colonialism and exploitation. We know this first-hand with the demand for Land Back. In line with this, last November the NoName Book Club picked As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, From Colonization to Standing Rock to read. This book helped reframe the way that I thought of environmental justice in that true environmental justice must “incorporate Indigenous conceptions of relationality to land”.  To further support this position, I would also strongly recommend the work of the Red Nation (podcast and The Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save our Earth) who are consistently on the forefront of taking material and political steps to heal the earth."

– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

"I recently virtual attended the 2022 Indigenous Earth Summit – 'a virtual #MOTHEREARTH CELEBRATION to center and elevate Indigenous communities and leadership in #climatechange and #conservation efforts.' It was a powerful to hear from Indigenous leaders and changemakers about how we, as a society, need to lean on the expertise and experiences of Indigenous leaders and changemakers. In honor of Earth Day and in support of planet conservation, I encourage you to learn more about the Decolonizing Wealth Project. Another organization that was featured during the Indigenous Earth Summit was the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples."

– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

Ologies Podcast, Episode 214: Indigenous Fire Ecology (GOOD FIRE) with Amy Christianson

"The Ologies podcast is a regular companion on my long drives and while cleaning my kitchen. April is earth month, so I want to plug an episode that gave me some new perspectives on environmental justice and indigenous land practices. This interview with Dr. Amy Christianson, an indigenous fire ecologist, is super engaging and will almost certainly teach you something about the earth that you didn’t know before."

– Rebecca Wolfe, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

Greg Mitman
Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008

"This was one of the first books I ever read that exposed me to the ways in which structural racism and residential segregation affects our health. Focusing primarily on allergies, the book traces how elite white Americans in the 19^th century colonized areas and vacationed away from their homes to more favorable weather conditions to avoid seasonal allergies. By the turn of the century, it eloquently lays out how poor and working-class people of color are disproportionately affected and contract allergies through poor living conditions, environmental waste, and even the droplets from rodents and roaches. In the end, it says to me that as a nation, we must address the social and environmental aspects of systemic racism to advance health equity."

– Antoine S. Johnson, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

"Culturally, with history, we often only recognize a select few people and attribute collective accomplishments to celebrated individuals. This Women’s History Month, I would like to honor a community of people, the Combahee River Collective, a former political organization of Black Lesbian socialist feminists. Under their vision, the Combahee River Collective drafted the Combahee River Collective Statement, which has provided a radical blueprint for organizing while also paying homage to the abolitionist Harriet Tubman."

– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

“At the human scale, in order to create a world that works for more people, for more life, we have to collaborate on the process of dreaming and visioning and implementing the world.”  – adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds.

– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

"This month, I want to highlight the work of the scholar I cite the most – Dr. Sabrina Strings. Her book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia has deeply shaped how I think about my research as well as how I think about my own body and existence in this world. Centering the experiences of – and critically examining the exploitation and marginalization of – Black women in Western spaces from the Renaissance to current day, Strings makes a deeply compelling argument that the rampant fat-phobia of U.S. culture isn’t about health at all. Instead, it is a product of a long history of deeply entrenched racism, classism, misogyny, and religious imperialism, all of which it also serves to reinforce and perpetuate."

– Rebecca Wolfe, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

In honor of Women’s History Month, I chose Coming of Age in Jim Crow DC: Navigating the Politics of Everyday Life by Paula C. Austin. As brilliant as the book is, I am using this opportunity also to amplify Dr. Austin the individual, as she has been my mentor since 2015 – helping me navigate academia and maintain my sense of self through challenging times. The book centers poor and working-class Black youth as contributors to the Black intellectual tradition through ways in which they confronted systemic racism in the nation’s capital. These young Black people’s actions inverted ways scholars, the media, law enforcement, and elected officials portrayed them and offers new perspectives on Black urban life under Jim Crow segregation.

– Antoine S. Johnson, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

"I recently went to see the 'Mothership: Voyage into Afrofuturism' exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California. I was deeply and instantly connected to the work of science fiction author Octavia E. Butler and her uncanny predictions of the future. In one of her quotes she states, 'All I did was look around at problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.' This quote, among many Octavia Butler quotes, gives me chills due to the precision and accuracy of talking about the future. This month I recommend some of her books, including Bloodchild, Kindred, and Parable of the Sower."

– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

"Patricia Hill Collins’s Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment is a landmark text in sociology, as well as so well-written and engaging that you can make it your nightstand book. In it, she draws on oral history, fiction, poetry, music, and intellectual and academic work to offer theoretical frameworks rooted in the incredible contributions of prominent Black feminist leaders. Drawing out common threads across the works of thinkers including bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Angela Davis, she clearly communicates theories such as standpoint theory and the matrix of domination. Her illustrations and examples of these concepts are complex, yet clear, and her ability to synthesize a field of thought is remarkable. I highly recommend this book – you will see the world differently when you are done reading."

– Rebecca Wolfe, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

bell hooks
Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism
Boston: South End Press, 1981

“I’ve never felt real grief for a stranger until I learned of the passing of bell hooks. I don’t say this to center myself in the physical loss of an intellectual icon, friend to some, and family member to others. I simply share this because this is what made bell hooks’s impact so profound. She made you feel like she cared for you and understood your humanity all the while challenging you to think deeper. bell hooks did just that in her first book Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism ‒ a book that she remarkably wrote at the tender age of nineteen. Her book drew on the formerly enslaved freedom fighter Sojourner Truth’s 'Ain’t I a Woman?' speech that critiqued movements of feminism and Black Freedom that did not include the human rights of Black Women. Ain’t I Woman made me question my own personal patriarchal practices and rethink what Black Liberation truly means. Just as bell drew on Sojourner, I hope to draw on bell hooks’s revolutionary thinking to constantly struggle against imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy.” 

– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

bell hooks
All About Love: New Visions
New York: William Morrow, 1999

“In honor of the life and endless contributions of bell hooks, my January 2022 read is All About Love, by bell hooks. In my work supporting students and the community, forming relationships built on honesty, love, openness, and vulnerability is foundational. All About Love really allowed me to continue my growth in understanding the importance of love in all aspects of our lives, as well as challenged me to unlearn and re-learn the messages of the meaning of love that we learn from our personal upbringings, mainstream media, and society. bell hooks touches on the importance of love in childhood, in spirituality, with the words that we use in community healing, and in life and death. 'When we choose to love we choose to move against fear ‒ against alienation and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect ‒ to find ourselves in the other.' I highly recommend All About Love ‒ you will walk away with a greater sense of the true and ever-evolving meaning of love that can be applied in our academic and personal lives.”

– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

bell hooks
Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem
New York: Washington Square Press, 2004

“Rock My Soul was my introduction to bell hooks. She challenged a lot of what I thought I knew, including my understandings of the leadership during the civil rights movement and recognizing how pervasive patriarchy and sexism are in our society – particularly during Black social movements. Many Black men had a false sense of self-esteem during social movements based on their perceptions of women’s roles in the Black freedom struggle. No one helped me understand that better than bell hooks, forcing me to check my own patriarchy at the door and develop a critical lens through historical narratives of African American history. Her unabashed writing style and analyses continue to help me pedagogically and from a research standpoint. I am forever grateful for her work and holding Black people ‒ Black men especially ‒ to higher standards.”

– Antoine S. Johnson, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

bell hooks
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
England: Routledge, 2014

“I don’t even know where to start because reading this book was so eye-opening and affirming for me as an educator. I’m currently in deep preparation for my graduate course – GRAD210: Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Academic Leadership – and the deep teachings and wisdom in Teaching to Transgress focused on the importance of providing and offering a teaching and learning environment where all students and the instructors are responsible for a learning environment that ‘respects and cares for the souls of our students’, and where risk taking and vulnerability are rewarded and serve as an important element to empower students to learn and challenge one another and the instructor. By reading Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks, it is my hope that we can create and sustain powerful and long-lasting teaching environments for the current and future generations of students to learn and make our society more equitable, inclusive, and just.” 

– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

Brandi T. Summers
"Untimely Futures"
Places Journal, November 2021

“With the continual dispossession of the land of Indigenous Peoples on the top of my mind, this article by Dr. Summers illuminated the ongoing project of dispossession in the U.S. that continues to deny Black people the basic necessity of shelter.   

“Being in the Bay, I felt compelled to highlight the work of a scholar from the community and their research on our community. Personally, I have family that has lived generations in the historically black neighborhood of West Oakland (home of the Black Panther Party). In fact, the first place I lived in Oakland, during a summer in undergrad and part of my time in graduate school, was in my cousin’s house on 10th and Adeline. Now, most of this family is gone from this neighborhood due to the high costs of housing from gentrification. This article demonstrates how that came to be.”

– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

Ice Cube and Angela Davis
"Nappy Happy"
Transition 58, no. 1 (1992): 174-192

“I discovered this interview at a pivotal time while working on my master's thesis, which examined rap artists' intellectual capabilities during hip hop's "golden era" from 1987-1993. As I fell in love with Ice Cube's machismo and aggressive style, this interview – along with works by Charise Cheney, Barbara Ransby and Tracye Matthews, and bell hooks – challenged my views on masculinity, gender, sexuality, and Blackness. Angela Davis forced Ice Cube to think broader about Black familial bonds and how Eurocentric forms of patriarchy weighed on African Americans. I did my own self-reflection at the time and viewed everything differently, including rappers and rap music and my own relationships. This conversation has stood the test of time and I am forever thankful for their humility and vulnerability.”

– Antoine S. Johnson, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

Charlene A. Carruthers
Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements
Boston: Beacon Press, 2018

"Unapologetic, by Charlene A. Carruthers, touches on many intricate and complex details of being a community organizer, a leader, and quite simply, a Black woman advocating for our communities. I especially enjoyed the chapter, entitled ‘Three Commitments,’ which highlighted three important aspects of leading movements for Black liberation: 1) building many strong leaders; 2) adopting healing justice as a core organizing value and practice; and 3) combating liberalism with principled struggle. After I read this chapter along with many other chapters, the teachings and wisdom left a deep impact on me in the way that I, individually, and our team – collectively – approach and work towards Black liberation and the liberation of so many others."
– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

Andrea J. Ritchie
Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color
Boston: Beacon Press, 2017

"Identifying as a black man, I have seen firsthand the violence of incarceration and policing with my friends, family, and community. However, with many of our movements for freedom, I (and we as a society) have left out many of those most harmed by these systems. Andrea J. Ritchie’s research requires us to break free from the terror of police violence which reinforces gender-based violence and heteronormativity to expand our visions of safety to center black, indigenous, brown, immigrant women and trans and queer women of color."
– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager

Barbara Ransby
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005

"This book exposed me to the complexities behind organizing and the benefits of working with people of all ages and organizations with similar goals but different approaches. Baker implemented a radical vision for Black people at a time when men dominated the civil rights movements and the masses followed charismatic speakers. Baker played a backseat role and, as a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, showed the importance of grassroots-led campaigns with group-centered approaches that lift others as they themselves climb."
– Antoine S. Johnson, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2013

"I enjoyed reading Braiding Sweetgrass because it taught me about the power of connection through nature and science. As an Indigenous scientist, author Robin Wall Kimmerer shared beautiful stories of her reciprocal relationships to nature and living beings and the importance of connections and community. It was a profound read for me, especially in the context of building, sustaining, and advocating for our communities."
– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success

Robin D. G. Kelley
Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
Boston: Beacon Press, 2002

"This book illustrated to me ways Black people fought to better their conditions in spite of harsh circumstances. It taught me that exerting my energy towards what I want to build is more important than expending it all on what I want to take down."
– Antoine S. Johnson, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022

Janet Mock
Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More
New York: Atria, 2014

"It is difficult to put into words the impact that Janet Mock's memoir has had on me. Redefining Realness does just that – it has challenged me to rethink and resist the definitions that have been prescribed to us and specifically my own gender identity. I am most grateful for our trans community members who are our leaders in building liberation practices within our communities and empowering us to redefine what is real."
– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager