EFI Book Club

In October 2023 the DEI Working Group created this living document to provide a summary of action items suggested during book club calls. The living document is to be used as a reference to support and inspire activities for EFI that can be developed and led as individuals have time, availability, and interest in doing so. The living document also provides an opportunity to collate and celebrate activities that have taken place that have been inspired by or align with suggestions from the book clubs.

Upcoming Book Club – May 2024

In preparation for the EFI 2024 Conference in Helsinki, Finland, the DEI working group is leading a book club to read Stolen by Sámi author Ann-Helén Laestadius. While the novel is based in Sweden, it centers the Sámi people who live across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. We are excited about this book, as it expands the book club in a few ways. This is the first novel the EFI book club will read. Much of the material that the DEI working group has focused on up to this point has had a United States bias and we expect reading and discussing Stolen together will provide the group with a contemporary view of cultural and environmental threats to an Indigenous group outside the U.S. We are also excited that in April of this year, Netflix will be releasing a film adaptation of Stolen, which could provide additional opportunities for discussion.

The book club will meet weekly in May 2024 (exact dates and times TBD based on participant availability). If you are interested in joining, email info@ecoforecast.org by April 13, 2024 to be added to the email list and receive a poll for scheduling calls.

Stolen Stolen by Ann-Helén LaestadiusMay 2024
97 Things About Ethics Everyone in Data Science Should Know edited by Bill FranksJuly-August 2023
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O'NeilJune-July 2022
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Statement developed by the book club participants as a guide for considering data and forecast provenance. "Ecological forecasts, and the data that shape them, are a gift from the community. In this context, the community includes humans, animals, plants, and the land. Forecasts help us to shape decisions that impact our collective community or cultural values in a collaborative framework. We show gratitude for the gifts of ecological forecasts and data when we honor the reciprocal relationships among community members."
June-July 2021
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel WilkersonDecember 2020-January 2021
Spatio-Temporal Statistics with R by Christopher K. Wikle, Andrew Zammit-Mangion, and Noel CressieAugust-November 2020
The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us by Paul Tough
Note: This book was originally published as "The Years That Matter Most" now it is "The Inequality Machine"
June-July 2020