City University of Seattle Library: Social Justice Resources: Learn

What is Social Justice?

Overview

Social justice work is a recognition of the socio-political history that shapes power, privilege, oppression. It is also a commitment to policies, practices, and behaviors that strive for equitable opportunities and outcomes for all. Social justice is often used as a macro-level term for movements concerning the promotion of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

The Importance of Intersectionality

A term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality refers to a framework for understanding the way in which a person's identity or individual characteristics---race, gender, class, ability, etc.---intersect and overlap. The culmination of those identities impact how we interact with the world and shape the myriad of ways we may be privileged or discriminated against. Because of our unique intersections, social justice work can take many forms and overlap in a variety of ways.

Below, you will find a selection of popular resources that cover just some of the many topics that relate to social justice and equity work. Some of these topics are highlighted below. As you explore these topics, don't forget the importance of identifying the interlocking systems of oppression and exploitation that fuel continued inequity.


Anti-Racism	Accessibility	LGBTQ+ Rights

Labor and Class	Climate Justice	Gender Equality

Please note: This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of popular texts. Additionally, for items related to addressing these topics within the classroom, please see the "Teach" section of this guide. If you wish to learn more or would like assistance finding additional materials about these subjects, please ask a librarian.

Read

Transformative approaches to social justice education: equity and access in the college classrooms

Envisioning TESOL through a Translanguaging Lens

Book cover for How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi

Book cover of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion

We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice

Knowledge Justice: Disrupting Library and Information Studies through Critical Race Theory

Listen

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This short NPR report from 2015 begins delving into racial trauma (PTSD caused by racism). Reporter Cheryl Corley touches upon the legacies of institutionalized racism, microaggressions, and other subtle, persistent forms of discrimination to demonstrate their deleterious impact upon Black Americans. Using sound bites from experts across the country, the report also briefly examines symptoms of racial trauma and calls out the "American Psychiatric Association's manual of mental health disorders" for only "recogniz[ing] racism as trauma . . . when an individual meets certain criteria." A transcript can be found at the link.

Watch

Explore

A selection of museums, archives, and special collections that are ideal for browsing.

Disability History Museum
"The Disability History Museum's mission is to foster a deeper understanding about how changing cultural values, notions of identity, laws and policies have shaped and influenced the experience of people with disabilities, their families and their communities over time."
Equal Justice Initiative
"EJI works with communities that have been marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment. We are committed to changing the narrative about race in America. EJI produces groundbreaking reports, an award-winning calendar, and short films that explore our nation’s history of racial injustice."
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In 2018, EJI opened the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice as part of our national effort to create new spaces, markers, and memorials that address the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, which shapes many issues today.
The Getty Research Institute: African American Art History Initiative
"This transformational research initiative focuses on the postwar art and cultural legacy of artists of African American and African diasporic heritage. The Getty Research Institute's objective is to provide a more robust and accurate history of American art, one that will have a decisive impact on the narrative of global culture."
The Getty Research Institute: Archives and Resources for Feminist Research
"The Getty Research Institute is a rich repository of resources for those interested in studying art and feminism. Its Special Collections hold the archives of eminent artists, writers, and curators whose work—while not necessarily self-identified as feminist—had an impact on feminist art since the 1960s. These collections offer insight into the development of these artists' and writers' practice."
The Gordon Parks Foundation
"The Gordon Parks Foundation supports and produces artistic and educational initiatives that advance the legacy and vision of Gordon Parks for social justice. Recognized as the most significant African American photographer of the 20th century, as well as an influential writer, composer, and filmmaker, Parks used the arts as a vehicle to further what he described as 'the common search for a better life and a better world.'"
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The Foundation was co-founded in 2006 by Parks with his longtime friend and editor at LIFE magazine, Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., to preserve his creative work and support the next generation of artists advancing social justice.
The Lesbian Herstory Archives
"We founded The Lesbian Herstory Archives in the 1970s when a group of women involved in the Gay Academic Union realized that Lesbian history was “disappearing as quickly as it was being made.” Our mission is to gather and preserve records of Lesbian lives and activities so that future generations will have ready access to materials relevant to their lives."
National Museum of African American History & Culture
"The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans."
Native Land Digital
Native Land Digital is a registered Canadian not-for-profit organization. "We strive to map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages across the world in a way that goes beyond colonial ways of thinking in order to better represent how Indigenous people want to see themselves. We provide educational resources to correct the way that people speak about colonialism and indigeneity, and to encourage territory awareness in everyday speech and action."
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Native Land has a majority-Indigenous Board of Directors, representing people who have close ties to land bases, communities, and deep knowledge about Indigenous ways of being and knowing.
Oral Histories from the University of Washington Special Collections
"The University of Washington Special Collections began collecting oral histories in the 1960s as part of an effort to document the history and culture of our regional ethnic communities."
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Forging partnerships with local organizations, oral historians recorded interviews with members of the Scandinavian American, African American, Japanese American, and Jewish communities in Seattle and Washington State. Later, this effort broadened to document the Northwest arts community and spawned new projects such as the North Cascades History Project. Today, these oral histories represent the bulk of an ever-growing collection and stand as a rich resource for researchers from a variety of fields.
Slave Voyages
"The Trans-Atlantic and Intra-American slave trade databases are the culmination of several decades of independent and collaborative research by scholars drawing upon data in libraries and archives around the Atlantic world. The new SlaveVoyages website itself is the product of three years of development by a multi-disciplinary team of historians, librarians, curriculum specialists, cartographers, computer programmers, and web designers, in consultation with scholars of the slave trade from universities in Europe, Africa, South America, and North America."
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The National Endowment for the Humanities was the principal sponsor of this work carried out originally at Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, the University of California at Irvine, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. The Hutchins Center of Harvard University has also provided support. The website is currently hosted at Rice University.
Smithsonian Magazine: Race in America
"158 resources to understand racism in America. These articles, videos, podcasts and websites from the Smithsonian chronicle the history of anti-black violence and inequality in the United States."
Stonewall National Museum and Archives
"The Stonewall National Museum and Archives (SNMA) is one of the largest gay archives and libraries in the United States."
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When founded in 1972, the founder Mark Silber used the name “Stonewall” to recognize the fight for LGBTQ liberation that began at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. It was a name with meaning then and it has become nearly synonymous with gay liberation efforts since that time. SNMA presents an ongoing 12-month schedule of exhibitions on LGBTQ themes and public programs, including author presentations, films, panel discussions, and collaborative events at its museum and library in South Florida and in cities across the United States.
The Urban Art Mapping George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art Database
"The Urban Art Mapping George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art database seeks to document examples of street art from around the world that have emerged in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd as part of an ongoing movement demanding social justice and equality. The database serves as repository for images and a future resource for scholars and artists by way of metadata that is freely available for educational use and research."

Social Justice Resources

What is Social Justice?

Overview

The Importance of Intersectionality

Anti-Racism

Accessibility

LGBTQ+ Rights

Labor and Class

Climate Justice

Gender Equality

Read

Listen

Watch

Explore