The Parlour Reading Room was launched in August 2020 by Anwyn Hocking and Sophie Adsett. It offers an invitation for the Parlour community to delve deeper into themes related to intersectional feminist theory, practice and the built environment. The initiative provides the framework for individuals to self-organise book club groups with their friends, family and colleagues with thematic read-watch-listen collections, conversation facilitation guides and monthly Q&A sessions with the wider Reading Room community.

The aim of the Parlour Reading Room is to create an open and friendly space to collectively build what Sara Ahmed calls a “feminist survival kit,”  filled with the stories, ideas and text recommendations from those within built environment professions. The Parlour Reading Room is a collective and ongoing project – anyone can join and start a group at any time, and the collective google doc remains open for additional material suggestions.

As the first theme of the Parlour Reading Room, this collection lays the theoretical framework for the Parlour Reading Room series with introductory ideas to feminist theory explored through Sara Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s conception of intersectionality, and Celeste Liddle’s Australian Indigenous perspective on intersectionality.

With the collection, we reflect on the meaning of feminism and intersectionality, asking what you hear when you hear the word feminism and who feels welcome and unwelcome in the feminist movement. In September 2021, we hosted a conversation with Celeste Liddle and Janet McGaw to explore and dissect the ideas explored in the materials. The collection conversation can be seen here.