Check out my selection of EDI books this season:
- Both not half: a radical approach to mixed heritage identity, Jassa Ahluwalia
- Bi: the hidden culture, history and science of bisexuality, Julia Shaw
- The race to the top: how to fight structural racism, Nazir Afzal OBE
- Disability visibility: first-person stories from the twenty-first century, edited by Alice Wong
- Conscious inclusion: how to ‘do’ EDI one decision at a time, Catherine Garrod
- Neuroqueer heresies: notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities, Nick Walker
- The anti-ableist manifesto: how to build a disability-inclusive world, Tiffany Yu
I specifically chose this set for its variety.
Diverse authors
Jassa Ahluwalia is a male actor, author and activist of British and Indian descent.
Dr Julia Shaw is a bisexual German-Canadian criminal psychologist.
Nazir Afzal OBE was the first Muslim to be appointed Chief Crown Prosecutor in the UK.
Alice Wong was an American disability rights activist, born with spinal muscular dystrophy.
Catherine Garrod led Sky to become the Most Inclusive Employer in the UK.
Dr Nick Walker is an American professor of psychology and psychedelic studies, and one of the developers of Neuroqueer theory.
Tiffany Yu is a disability advocate and social impact entrepreneur.
Wide-ranging topics
Spanning the breadth of EDI problematics: gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, disability…
Varied genres
Bringing different dimensions to your EDI outlook: research material, reflective essay, advocacy manifesto, workplace inclusion how-to, lived experience memoir…
Why it matters
EDI is a vast and complex field. Looking at inclusion through a variety of lenses, hearing many viewpoints, and reviewing different approaches is essential.
By choosing authors that are different from you, or topics that do not affect your everyday life, you broaden your perspective and learn about experiences you know nothing about. Equally, by choose authors you share some characteristics with, you remind yourself that having the same labels doesn’t always mean having the same experiences.
By comparing and contrasting various styles and genres, you expand your personal and professional approach to EDI, and you clarify your position within the ecosystem.
Looking forward to these summer reads. Let me know your views, if you have read some of them. And feel free to recommend other books for my next hoard.
