Back to School

It’s back to school time for students of all ages! 

Students are just getting into the groove of being back in a learning environment (though we know a lot of important learning happens over the summer too), and as this school year starts I was thinking about how I am not in any kind of school, for the first time in a long time.

I’m not taking any classes–not even gym ones. Last year, I kicked off the school year in an elementary school library. Before that, I worked at public libraries and helped when the buildings were lively with afterschool programming. And even before that, I was in classes finishing my master's degree in library and information science. But here I am, as August turns to September, in a new school-less phase of life. It's weird, but opens up my brain to learning in a different way. 

You may not know this, but information science is a HUGE field, from public libraries, to school, to archives, to special collections, to the study of information. I’m interested in the details of information organization, especially for queer people. I’m fascinated by your elaborate tab system on your web browser, engrossed as you tell me about your planning system. As a journalist and a librarian by training, I’m super interested in how people learn about stuff and organize what they learned so they can find it again. 

As we know well, learning environments haven’t historically prioritized the queer community. We’ve had to make our own personal curriculums through scouring Reddit, training our TikTok algorithms, asking our friends, crafting covertly worded forum posts and more. There weren’t undergraduate classes for how to come out to your parents, or how to navigate the school system as queer parents. 

You may have seen the TikTok trend of crafting your own personal curriculum, where influencers show expensive analog bags and carefully curated reading lists. There’s a movement to learn outside of an expensive college degree, to reduce screen time by taking notes in a notebook instead of online and check out books from the library on topics you are interested in. Hearing about this trend, you might have laughed as you remembered your own “personal curriculum” you crafted for yourself when deciding to go on HRT, or when researching your top surgeon. It’s always been more than a trend for us–it’s been survival. I remember how much reading I did just to find binding options, only to abandon them all for a tight fitting sports bra due to chronic illness. 

Sure, it may be a trend, but I do like the idea of being intentional about learning stuff as the school year starts, of using this time when others are getting back into school to do some reading and reflecting on my own. I like the idea of making my own school, and taking the time to write down what I’ve learned and gather up the information so that I don’t forget it. I want to share the stuff I find and learn with other queer people so that it isn’t so hard for the next person to find the information they need.

So here’s my mini personal curriculum for this second half of the year. Maybe you’ll get inspired to make your own? Or you’ll see this and think I need a more fun hobby? Anyway….

September: Sapphic September through fantasy - This September I want to read more sapphic titles in honor of the month, but I wanted to focus specifically on fantasy, because it’s a genre I don’t read as much of these days. Despite growing up a voracious fantasy reader, I find myself reading a lot more romance, and not nearly as much fantasy or science fiction.

• The Skin and Its Girl
• A Spell of Heart & Havoc
• The Siren’s Kiss
• The Jasmine Throne

October: Ace & Aro spectrum fiction and nonfiction - People on the ace and/or aro spectrum are often overlooked in literature, both in fiction and nonfiction. I want to commit my October to reading more books featuring characters on the ace or aro spectrums. I’m also trying to bring in some nonfiction to round out my understanding. 

• Shapes of Love
• Beyond the Black Door
• Legend of the Storm Sneezer
• Aces Wild  
• Compound Fracture
• Ace and Aro Journeys
• Refusing Compulsory Sexuality

November & December: Starting a worker-owned cooperative - I run a pop-up bookstore called Carnation Bookhouse, and I am trying to learn more about how cooperatives work, to see if I could work with people in our community to turn it into a worker-owned cooperative. I’m going to use November and December to really dive deeper into this.

• Rebel Bookseller
• Cooperatives at Work
• How to Start a Worker Cooperative Business – USFWC Co-op Clinic (Youtube video)
• Lean Co-Op Curriculum

Note: The links to books go to my affiliate link on bookshop.org (for my bookstore Carnation Bookhouse). There is no pressure to buy these books from me! You can probably find them at our local libraries. Champaign and Urbana share a catalog, which is linked here.

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