Changing the narrative: championing inclusive collection development: Recommend a book

What does it mean to be non-binary in the 21st Century? Our gender identity is impacted by our personal histories; the cultures, communities and countries we are born into; and the places we go and the people we meet. But the representation of contemporary non-binary identities has been limited, until now. Pushing the narrative around non-binary identities further than ever before, this powerful collection of essays represents the breadth of non-binary lives, across the boundaries of race, class, age, sexuality, faith and more. Leading non-binary people share stories of their intersecting lives; how it feels to be non-binary and neurodiverse, the challenges of being a non-binary pregnant person, what it means to be non-binary within the Quaker community, the joy of reaching gender euphoria. This thought-provoking anthology shows that there is no right or wrong way to be non-binary.

Language is one of the key paths to awareness, acceptance and empowerment but honestly, it can be confusing for many people. This easy-to-use dictionary introduces some of the most essential terminology surrounding gender, sexuality and LGBTQIA+ identity. If you have questions about yourself or about the terminology, or even if you’re simply interested in learning more, this essential guide will help you navigate the world with knowledge and kindness.

Uncovers the science behind our "unintentional" biases using real world stories underpinned by scientific theories and research. Experiments have shown that our brains categorize people by race in less than one-tenth of a second, about 50 milliseconds before determining sex. This means that we are labeling people by race and associating certain characteristics to them without even hearing them speak or getting to know them. This subtle cognitive process starts in the amygdala, the area of the brain associated with strong emotions. Does this mean that unconscious biases are hardwired into our brains as an evolutionary response, or do they emerge from assimilating information that we see around us?

We are in a moment of profound overlapping crises. The landscape of politics and entitlement is being rapidly and unpredictably remade. As movements against colonial legacies and state violence coincide with the rise of new authoritarian regimes, it is the analytical lens of racism, and the politics of race, that offers the sharpest focus. In Empire's Endgame, eight leading scholars make a powerful collective intervention in debates around racial capitalism and political crisis in the British context. While the 'Hostile Environment' policy and Brexit Referendum have thrown the centrality of race into sharp relief, discussions of racism have too often focused on individual attitudes and behaviors. Foregrounding instead the wider political and economic context, the authors of Empire's Endgame trace the ways in which the legacies of empire have been reshaped by global capitalism, the digital environment and the instability of the nation-state. Engaging with contemporary movements such as Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall, Empire's Endgame offers both an original perspective on race, media, the state and criminalization, and a vision of a political infrastructure that might include rather than expel in the face of crisis.

Focusing on the numerous domains in which debates about youth, sexuality and citizenship are enacted and contested Youth, Sexuality and Sexual Citizenship explores young people's experiences in diverse but linked settings: in the family, at school and in college, in employment, in social media and through engagement with health services. Bookended by reflections from Jeffrey Weeks and and Susan Talburt, the book's empirically grounded chapters also engage with the key debates outlined in it's scholarly introduction. This innovative book is of interest to students and scholars of gender and sexuality, health and sex education, and youth studies, from a range of disciplinary and professional backgrounds, including sociology, education, nursing, social work and youth work.

Recent research suggests that Black and minority ethnic (BME) academics remain underrepresented, particularly at senior levels in higher education, and tend to be concentrated in new, post-1992 universities. This book provides an original comparative study of BME academics in both the UK and the USA, two different yet similar cultural and political climates, considering issues of inequality, difference and identity in the Academy. Presenting a distinctive and engaging voice, the book discusses the complexity of race, gender and identity in the context of higher education, an area that continues to appear to be dominated by white, middle class values and perspectives. Chapters offer an up-to-date commentary on the purpose, failures and potential of research on race, gender and identity, and its place within contemporary education and sociology. The book broadens the understanding of educational research, considering both sociological and cultural discourse, as well as examining racialized and gendered identities from a theoretical and analytical standpoint. The book closes by offering suggestions for viable policy shifts in this area. The Experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic Academics will be of key interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the field of education, as well as sociologists wanting to learn more about black and minority academics in higher education.

Using an autoethnographic approach, as well as multiple first-person accounts from disabled writers, artists, and scholars, Jan Doolittle Wilson describes how becoming disabled is to forge a new consciousness and a radically new way of viewing the world. In Becoming Disabled, Wilson examines disability in ways that challenge dominant discourses and systems that shape and reproduce disability stigma and discrimination. It is to create alternative meanings that understand disability as a valuable human variation, that embrace human interdependency, and that recognize the necessity of social supports for individual flourishing and happiness.

In austerity Britain, disabled people have been recast as worthless scroungers. From social care to the benefits system, politicians and the media alike have made the case that Britain's 12 million disabled people are nothing but a drain on the public purse. In Crippled, journalist and campaigner Frances Ryan exposes the disturbing reality, telling the stories of those most affected by this devastating regime. It is at once both a damning indictment of a safety net so compromised it strangles many of those it catches and a passionate demand for an end to austerity, which hits hardest those most in need.

The purpose of our book is simple: we believe that our lives, our experiences, and our voices matter, especially in a place of power, pervasive whiteness and exclusivity. Our voices not only deserve to be heard but must be because the ‘Cambridge experience’ of a middle-class, white, cisgendered, able-bodied man is not the only one. Ours cannot be silenced.