Are you looking for a way to engage with current cultural studies? We’ve rounded up some of this month’s releases that explore everything from depictions of gendered violence in the media to the questions that women face regarding medical treatment.

White Tears/Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad

In 2018, journalist Ruby Hamad wrote an article for The Guardian Australia titled ‘How white women use strategic tears to silence women of colour’. It received worldwide praise and condemnation. White Tears/Brown Scars blows open the inconvenient truth that when it comes to race, white entitlement is too often masked by victimhood. Never is this more obvious than the dealings between women of colour and white women. What happens when racism and sexism collide? Read our full review here.

Fixed It by Jane Gilmore

Are you frustrated by the way that gendered violence is represented in the media? Are you tired of reading headlines about ‘nice, polite’ murderers from ‘a good family’? Are you sick of any kind of rhetoric around the idea that a murdered or assaulted woman can be ‘asking for it’? Jane Gilmore is too, and Fixed It is her response. Fixed It demonstrates the myths that we’re unconsciously sold about violence against women, and undercuts them in a clear and compelling way. This is a bold, powerful look at the stories we are told – and the stories we tell ourselves – about gender and power, and a call to action for all of us to think harder and do better.

How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Not being racist is not enough. We have to be antiracist. This vital and illuminating new book from Ibram X. Kendi demolishes the myth of the post-racial society and builds from the ground up an insightful new understanding of racism – what it is, where it is hidden, how to identify it and what to do about it. One thing is clear from Kendi’s book – we can all do better, we can always continue to learn, and we can all work together towards a brighter future for all.

This Is Not Propaganda by Peter Pomerantsev

When information is a weapon, everyone is at war. Words that are particularly pertinent nowadays. It seems that Trump is tweeting something bizarre daily, or ‘fake news’ is being splashed all over your Facebook feed. How to make head or tail of it all? Well, Peter Pomerantsev is here to help. Making sense of the disinformation age, he meets Twitter revolutionaries and pop-up populists, ‘behavioural change’ salesmen, Jihadi fan-boys, Identitarians, truth cops, and much more in his new book, This Is Not Propaganda.

We Need New Stories by Nesrine Malik

Has freedom of speech become a cover for promoting prejudice? Has the concept of political correctness been weaponised to avoid ceding space to those excluded from power? Does white identity politics pose an urgent danger? These are some of the questions at the centre of Nesrine Malik’s radical and compelling analysis, We Need New Stories.

About a Girl by Rebekah Robertson

This is the story of family with a daughter in transition. If you’ve been looking for a profoundly moving true story that will open your eyes and heart to the experiences faced by transgender peoples and their families, look no further than Rebekah Robertson’s About a Girl, a celebration of family and the values that unite us all. Part memoir and part inspirational message of hope for those navigating a similar path, About a Girl is a thought-provoking and profoundly moving true story.

Pain and Prejudice by Gabrielle Jackson

How much do you really know about endometriosis? It’s little talked-about, but it is a completely debilitating disease that has outrageous effects on the health and lives of so many of us. So why do we know so little about it? Is it that women’s pain is not taken as seriously as men’s? Author Gabrielle Jackson argues as such in Pain and Prejudice, her potent confrontation of the private concerns and questions women face regarding their health and medical treatment.