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[close] “If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. If you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.� - Lilla Watson Peace Corps and International Development is problematic, and as a returned volunteer, I have been wanting for some time to critically re-examine my overseas experience, to think through its explicit and implicit power dynamics. How do issues of race, class, gender, colonialism, and geopolitics inform the "do-gooder" mentality of volunteer and paid international development work, and what does that mean for its impact on volunteers, host communities, and others? Change begins with learning, and that is why I wanted to start this group where we could read, discuss, and share centered on thought-provoking books that bring a more critical perspective to Peace Corps and ID organizations. One goal is to create a syllabus to be shared with future or returned Peace Corps Volunteers as well as others, something akin to Ibram X. Kendi's anti-racist syllabus for Ralph Northam. What would we imagine for Peace Corps and ID organizations if we incorporated a true grappling with our place in the world, this work, its dynamics, and discourses of improvement?

[close] This group is for readers and authors who are interested in self help.

[close] I'm very interested in learning about education in the US. I've been reading about charter schools, school reform, Montessori schools, local and national standards, issues of teacher unions and tenure, alternate-certification methods for teachers, issues of race and culture in schooling, issues of poverty in schooling, etc. I'm hoping to find others interested in some or all of these topics!

[close] Do you want to understand how Trump came to Power? Do you want to build a more powerful and inclusive progressive movement? Me too -- that's why I'm trying to read as much as possible from as many different viewpoints as possible. Send in books you think we should read!