Together We Read, Together We Learn: Examining Book Clubs as a Means of Connecting LIS to a Feminist Diversity Ethic

Abstract

This article examines the significance of dialogic exploration of feminist and diversity-oriented texts in book clubs consisting of Library and Information Science (LIS) master’s students at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Through this research, I sought to achieve an understanding of how participation in book clubs that espouse a feminist or diversity ethic inspire members to create deeper, more insightful connections between these values and LIS. While the two book clubs under study began as separate entities with distinct memberships, participants’ dual membership increased over time. The initially distinct ideals of each book club—feminism and diversity—coalesced, and a new value schema emerged in common between the two: a feminist diversity ethic. A feminist diversity ethic is a form of intersectional feminism that values experiential knowledge, the multifaceted nature of identity, respectful communication, caring, and orientation toward social justice as a means of dismantling interlocking systems of oppression. In the book clubs, this ethic encouraged the proactive search for exposure to diverse cultural and experiential paradigms through texts and stories of lived experience. Emphasis on this ethic informed book club members’ approach to LIS in several ways: first, it challenged participants to define diversity and its importance in LIS; second, it fostered the deconstruction of the notion of the other; and third, it enabled participants to actualize a feminist diversity ethic within the structure of the book clubs, thus preparing them to continue this ethic in their future roles as LIS practitioners.