Critical Reviews • Pushing the Margins 61

Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS

Chou, Rose L., ed. Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press, 2018. 488 pp. $41.00. Paperback. ISBN: 97816340000529.

Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS is a potent and well-presented resource that serves as a guide into the world of marginality and oppression through the lens of intersectionality for Women of Color (WOC). The book is “a monograph that allows for conversations to pivot away from the traditional diversity paradigm by applying an explicit feminist and intersectional framework” (8). The various contributing author essays take on the challenge of oppression that Women of Color who have been historically overlooked in the Library and Information Science field have faced, and the contributors provide an opportunity long overdue to share their collective scholastic knowledge. Pushing the Margins is a safe space that allows for true expression of identity along with experiences encountered in a field that is overwhelmingly white, and the collection invites readers to obtain a greater understanding of how those challenges were met. The essays are living documents from Women of Color that can be used to break down barriers, provide real time reflections, and serve, as the editors explain, as “a platform for others who are interested in researching and writing about intersectionality within LIS” (6). While the intended audience of this resource is professionals in the Library and Information Science field, these principles can be adopted by other professional fields dealing with similar challenges.

The strengths of Pushing the Margins include not only the powerful essays themselves, but also the manner in which the editors organized the presentation of the content. Rose L. Chou and Annie Pho, both academic librarians and former Hack Library School editors, provide as Women of Color a window into their interpretation of intersectionality. They create an intentional path into the communal space where crucial dialogue can take place, while maintaining a necessary distance and allowing the contributing authors’ words to speak. For example, the editors write, “Within the chapters, the authors have chosen to identify, name, and capitalize social identities as they saw fit, and the only time that we tried to enforce edits was to change cisnormative language” (11). Use of personal voice and experience is a theme throughout the essays, enhanced by outstanding scholarship, a combination which makes this a refreshing read. The intentional use of the “consciousness-raising” technique is an excellent choice, as each essay shines a light on this ongoing, powerful, and diverse work, challenging readers to engage in their own journey of deep thought combined with action.

The choice to focus only on public services, though necessary to keep the book from becoming unwieldly, is disappointing. This decision mutes the voices and experiences of WOC who are part of the LIS world of cataloging and technical services, for example. Professionals in technical services share similarities but have unique challenges. I found hope in the acknowledgement of this missing segment when the editors concede, “We recognize we are missing many voices in this volume, but our hope is that this book is a beginning to many more works on examining the complexities of being a WOC working in LIS” (30).

It is clear that the editors’ and contributing authors’ goals have been achieved. Each clearly defines the focus as providing a safe space for WOC to share their research and encounters with oppression in ways that created and sustained action fueled by a sense of community. The book’s call to action encourages readers to break down the barriers of marginalization that are reinforced in silence. As LaVerne Gray, American