The Parlour Reading Room is our take on the traditional book club. It provides an opportunity to come together, to foster discussion and engage with feminist theory and practice, and to have fun!
Materials for all six themes are now available – you can start your Reading Room journey any time, and go at whatever pace suits you.
Parlour Reading Room provides the structure or ‘the room’ (get it!?) in which you can organise your own book club with colleagues and friends. This may be a small group of friends or an entire practice! Each theme is complete with suggested materials to read, listen to and watch, with facilitation guides to prompt discussion, and a video of an online Q&A session that reflects further on the ‘readings’. The aim is to foster meaningful and intimate conversation among groups of all sizes.
Conceived and convened by Anwyn Hocking and Sophie Adsett, the Parlour Reading Room monthly program started in August 2021 and ran until June 2022. All themes are now available to engage with any time, any place:
- Introducing intersectional feminism
- The profession through a feminist lens
- Considering collective access
- Intersectional urban environments
- “Still possible worlds”
- Intersectional practice – a DIY manifesto
FAQS – get started with your Book Stack
How do I organise my own group?
Gather together a group of friends, colleagues, collaborators, family, just about anyone interested in engaging with feminist theory, practice and the built environment! .
We are calling these groups Parlour Book Stacks. These can be as small or as large as you like. For a more intimate group, two to three people can work, but eight to ten can also work well – just remember that you want to find a sweet spot to enable everyone to speak and reflect.
You may like to host your book club in the lunchroom at work, your living room, a pub, cafe, over Zoom – wherever is easiest (and COVID safe)!
We’d love to know about your Book Stack – register your group here.
Can anyone get involved?
Yes! It is important to us that this program is accessible, welcoming and informal. Book stacks should be fun and friendly, not exclusive, stressful or daunting.
What if I don’t want to be in a smaller book club or can’t find anyone who wants to start a book club?
No worries – it’s just a suggestion! You’re more than welcome to go on a personal Parlour Reading Room journey.
When should we start and how often should we meet?
It is up to you. The materials for all six themes are now available, so you can go at whatever pace suits you.
What support will you provide?
Readings, material suggestions and discussion prompts are be available via the Suggested Material List. This interactive document enables the Parlour Reading Room to be a collective exercise, open for additional text suggestions, questions and comments from you!
There are lots of suggested materials – eek! What if I can’t get through them all?
Each theme has two to three recommended material suggestions – these are articles, videos or podcast episodes we suggest you focus on. There are additional read-watch-listen resources for those who would like to dig a little deeper into the topic.
We have selected a diversity of materials to be accessible and allow you to consume information in whichever way you prefer! We have also included with each suggestion the average reading, watching or listening time.
Watch Anwyn and Sophie introduce the Reading Room.
This post was updated 11 July 2022.
