Resources

Reading lists and text sets for the work of building community capacity for digital autonomy.

These lists are living documents. They draw on the research, speakers, and conversations from our lecture series and Signpost Sessions cohorts. We prioritize authors and researchers whose work is grounded in community, not extractive.

Digital Autonomy & Privacy

Texts for understanding surveillance, data, and reclaiming control of your digital life.

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Algorithms of Oppression Safiya Umoja Noble

How search engines reinforce racism — essential for any digital literacy curriculum.

Book
Race After Technology Ruha Benjamin

The New Jim Code: how tech encodes and amplifies existing inequities.

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The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Shoshana Zuboff

The definitive account of how tech platforms extract and profit from human behavior.

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Data Feminism Catherine D'Ignazio & Lauren Klein

A framework for thinking critically about data collection, power, and representation.

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Weapons of Math Destruction Cathy O'Neil

How opaque algorithms harm communities — readable and practical.

Article
The Danger of What We Don't Say About Privacy Woodrow Hartzog

On the limits of 'privacy as control' frameworks.

Literacy, Equity & Justice

Foundational and contemporary texts connecting literacy to liberation.

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Cultivating Genius Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad

Historically responsive literacy pedagogy grounded in Black intellectual tradition.

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Unearthing Joy Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad

Extends Cultivating Genius with joy-centered, historically responsive pedagogy.

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Literacy: Reading the Word and the World Paulo Freire & Donaldo Macedo

The foundation — literacy as a practice of freedom, not a neutral technical skill.

Curriculum
Writing Our Lives Marcelle Haddix

A curriculum project centering Black and Latinx youth as authors and intellectuals. See marcellehaddix.com.

Curriculum
#DisruptTexts Tricia Ebarvia, Lorena Germán, Kimberly N. Parker, Julia E. Torres

A movement to challenge the traditional literary canon for equity and inclusion. disrupttexts.org

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Literacy Is Liberation Kimberly N. Parker

Culturally relevant books and teaching practices for middle and high school.

Digital & Media Literacies

Research and practice on navigating networked media, misinformation, and online civic life.

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Mind Over Media Renee Hobbs

A framework for analyzing propaganda and media influence — with classroom applications.

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Digital and Media Literacy Renee Hobbs

Comprehensive introduction from one of the field's leading researchers.

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Connected Learning Mimi Ito et al.

How interest-powered, peer-supported, academically oriented learning happens in digital spaces.

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Participatory Culture in a Networked Era Henry Jenkins, Mizuko Ito, danah boyd

Three generations of media scholars in conversation about participation, power, and youth.

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It's Complicated danah boyd

Social lives of networked teens — corrects a lot of moral panic about young people online.

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Teaching the New Writing Anne Herrington, Kevin Hodgson & Charles Moran

Technology, change, and assessment in 21st century classrooms — grounded in classroom practice.

Community Organizing & Cooperative Practice

Models of collective action, mutual aid, and community-controlled institutions.

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Emergent Strategy adrienne maree brown

Organizing principles drawn from natural systems — essential for decentralized networks.

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Pleasure Activism adrienne maree brown

Making justice work feel good and sustainable, not just necessary.

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Mutual Aid Dean Spade

How to build survival programs while avoiding nonprofit capture — short and practical.

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An Everyone Culture Robert Kegan & Lisa Laskow Lahey

Deliberately developmental organizations — grows people, not just outputs.

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The Revolution Will Not Be Funded INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence

The nonprofit industrial complex critique — essential context for 501(c)(3) work.

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Pedagogy of the Oppressed Paulo Freire

Foundational text. Still essential. Not a quick read.

Young Adult & Children's Literature for Justice

Texts that build mirrors, windows, and doors — centering marginalized voices.

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The Hate U Give Angie Thomas

Police violence, community, and speaking up — one of the most taught YA novels of the decade.

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Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi

Antiracist history for young readers — also useful for adults.

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Hey, Kiddo Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Graphic memoir about family, addiction, and finding yourself — representation for marginalized experiences.

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American Street Ibi Zoboi

Immigration, identity, and belonging — an underused text for upper secondary.

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George (now: Melissa) Alex Gino

Trans identity for middle grade — still challenged, still necessary.

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Long Way Down Jason Reynolds

Gun violence in verse — demonstrates what form can do that prose cannot.


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If you have a text, tool, or resource that belongs here — something grounded in community, equity, and digital autonomy — send it our way.

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