WGEC Suggested Summer Readings

Looking for your next feminist read? The Women's, Gender, & Equity Center has got you! We've curated a list of books for students, faculty, and staff to read at their leisure and boost their feminist knowledge this summer. Relevant to work that's happening on the ground and at UMBC, these books embody the principles that the Women's, Gender, & Equity Center seeks to fulfill. You can also check out our Summer Book Club here.

1. "Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm" by Kazu Haga - This book introduces a philosophy of nonviolence rooted in Kingian principles, offering a powerful guide for engaging conflict and harm with empathy, accountability, and transformative justice. Haga blends activism, healing, and community care into a practice of "fierce vulnerability." This book is being read as part of the Center for Social Justice Dialogue's Summer Read program.
2. "From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education" by Tia Brown McNair, Estela Bensimon, and Lindsey Malcolm-Piquex- This practical guide challenges institutions to move beyond symbolic gestures by embedding equity and racial justice into policies, assessment, and leadership. It provides tools for higher education professionals committed to sustainable change.
3.  "White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color" by Ruby Hamad - Hamad explores how white feminism has historically excluded and harmed women of color by upholding systems of white supremacy and colonialism. She weaves personal narrative with historical and cultural critique to challenge dominant feminist frameworks.
4. "On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence" by Nicole Bedera - Drawing on ethnographic research, Bedera exposes how campus Title IX systems often protect accused students--particularly privilege white men--while retraumatizing survivors. She critiques the myth of neutrality in institutional responses and calls for equity-centered reforms that prioritize survivor safety, inclusion, and voice.
5. "Baltimore Revisited: Stories of Inequality and Resistance in a U.S. City" edited by P. Nicole King, Kate Drabinski, and Joshua Clark Davis - Edited in part by UMBC's very own Dr. Nicole King and Dr. Kate, this book is recommended for community members looking to learn more about the politics and battlegrounds in the city they learn from. Covering a range of topics, from environmental justice, capitalism and gentrification, to indigenous roots and rights, Baltimore Revisited is the activist's guide to Baltimore.
6. "Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals" by Alexis Pauline Gumbs - Beginning as a pandemic social media campaign, Gumbs' unlikely comparison between Black women's experiences and the objectification of marine mammals creates an "emergent strategy," one that has helped many reimagine their relationship with change. This book is recommended for community members that are looking to engage with feminist materials for the first time, or those looking for a new way to envision change.