The Sainsbury Library will be holding a book display in the Lower Reading Room throughout February to celebrate LGBT+ History Month. With this year’s theme being Science and Innovation, the display will focus not only on literal innovations, but also innovative ways of thinking about LGBT+ history from a combination of popular and academic books.
If you are interested in learning more about LGBT+ History Month, the Schools Out! website has information on its founding and structure. Further reading can also be found on our LGBTQ+ Business Resources LibGuide.
All featured materials can be accessed via the links below (Oxford SSO required) or in person at our display in the Lower Reading Room.
Businesses
Queer Business (2018): A timely intervention into the contemporary vitality of queer theories, Queer Business is an innovative book length exploration of how queer theory has been used in management and organisation studies, with the aim of broadening and deepening queer scholarship in this discipline.
The Queering of Corporate America (2019): Legal scholar Carlos Ball tells the overlooked story of how LGBTQ activism aimed at corporations since the Stonewall riots helped turn them from enterprises either indifferent to or openly hostile toward sexual minorities and transgender individuals into reliable allies of the queer equality movement. The Queering of Corporate America complicates the narrative of corporate conservatism and provides insights into the future legal, political, and cultural implications of this unexpected relationship.
Selling Out (2000): Is it possible to have a meaningful revolution in the middle of a capitalist spending frenzy? In a passionate, if ultimately utopian, analysis of gay politics, Chasin asserts that the creation of a gay-oriented consumer market – in tandem with the mainstreaming of a gay politic that disavows broad-based coalitions with women and people of colour – has prevented homosexuals from pursuing a more radical vision of social change.
Rainbow Trap (2025): Rainbow Trap documents how inclusive interventions have attempted to bring marginalised communities out of the shadows. Yet, as part of the bargain, LGBTQ people need to locate themselves in an ever-growing list of categories and labels to ‘make sense’ to the systems they are seeking to access. When we look beyond the veneer of inclusive interventions, we uncover sorting processes that determine what LGBTQ lives are valued.
Memoirs
Redefining Realness (2014): In 2011, Marie Claire magazine published a profile of Janet Mock in which she stepped forward for the first time as a trans woman. Those 2300 words were life-altering for the People.com editor, turning her into an influential public figure and a desperately needed voice for an often voiceless community. In these pages, she offers a bold and inspiring perspective on being young, multicultural, economically challenged, and transgender in America.
The Glass Closet (2015): Drawing on John Browne’s personal experiences and the experience of other gay and lesbian business leaders, and by investigating the research and the social contexts, The Glass Closet strives to inspire the LGBT community that despite the risks involved, self-disclosure is best for employees and for the businesses that support them.
All Pride, No Ego (2023): In an inspiring and personal roadmap to servant leadership, celebrated corporate leader James Fielding delivers an inspirational leadership story told from the perspective of an out and proud LGBTQ+ executive. In the book, you’ll explore a call-to-action for authentic servant leadership that encourages people to own their truth and bring out the best in themselves and their communities.
Technology
GaYme Changer (2021): Jens Schadendorf has traced the LGBT+ community and an increasing number of their allies from across the globe to discover the start of a revolution. It becomes clear, even in times of hostility and resistance, it is economically and ethically beneficial for companies and societies everywhere in the world, to let LGBT+ members develop into dynamic forces – rooted in new forms of cooperation for game changing results.
Trans Technologies (2025): Oliver L. Haimson, whose research into gender transition and technology has defined this area of study, draws on transgender studies and his own in-depth interviews with more than 100 creators of technology – including apps, games, health resources, extended reality systems, and supplies designed to address challenges trans people face – to explain what trans technology is and to explore its present possibilities and limitations, as well as its future prospects.
Economics
Homo Economics (1997): Homo Economics is the first honest account of the tense relationship between gay people and the economy. This groundbreaking collection brings together a variety of voices from the worlds of journalism, activism, academia, the arts, and public policy to address issues including the recent economic history of the gay community, the community’s response to its changing economic circumstances, and the risks inherent in a narrow definition of liberation.
Queer Economics (2008): Recontextualising extracts from Homo Economics almost a decade later, this reader is an examination of and response to the effects of heteronormativity on both economic outcomes and economics as a discipline.
For more resources, see our posts about other recent book displays.
