Writing by Mondo Vaden

2022 – Article – Without social safety nets, mutual aid is a lifeline for Black trans communities

Overview:

Mutual aid pages led by Black and brown trans people have helped redistribute vital resources to those who need it most. This article by Mondo Vaden explores what many Black trans people have had to navigate on their journeys to financial freedom.

Read the article here: https://prismreports.org/2022/09/06/mutual-aid-lifeline-black-trans-communities/

Keywords: Black trans, gender justice, Gender Justice for Liberation, LGBTQIA+, mutual aid, community organizing, trans, transgender

2022 – Article – CRT, information, and disability: An intersectional commentary

Abstract:

Grounded in Mondo Vaden’s perspective as a Deaf, Black, and trans librarian who has worked in many Library and Information Science (LIS) roles, he argues in this paper that information scientists and professionals could close the gap in representation and information access by applying a knowledge of intersectionality to our work. He makes the case for this by presenting examples of three Black historical “hidden figures” who shaped life as we know it in the USA, highlighting the erased dimensions of their lives as disabled people. Despite this geographical setting, these intersectional counter stories are relevant to addressing local areas of inequity in information access and resources worldwide.

This community commentary paper addresses a serious gap in scholarship and practice around the erasure of disability from both Black history and LIS theory and practice, and follows in the Critical Race Theory (CRT) traditions of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991) and counter-storytelling (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) to bridge this gulf. Applying CRT and related concepts to LIS work prepares the ground for immediate and future needs for equitable access to resources, by acknowledging those who may be hindered by their racial/ableist/queerphobic biases and the way they may unknowingly play into systemic oppression, just by their participation. This will maintain relevance and contribute to the creation of equity for Black and brown marginalized LIS staff and community members going forward. Having additional systemic support for our most marginalized staff members would create ripple effects in information access and cultural competency in the way we are able to see barriers and opportunities, and the field as a whole would benefit.

Read the article here: CRT, information, and disability: An intersectional commentary

Keywords: Intersectionality, CRT, diversity, equity, inclusion, DeafBlackTrans, disability, intersectional librarianship

2024 – Article – Information and intersectionality in the digital millennium

Abstract:

This paper details the importance of virtual and non-traditional information sharing mediums to create better information access outcomes for people experiencing multiple forms of oppression simultaneously. Non-mainstream media platforms and formats like Tumblr and zines, are a valuable potential contribution to the discourse on coloniality, decoloniality, and how resistant knowledges manifest according to the needs of the people who create them. The information sciences are limited as a result of the majority white, abled nature of the field, and Tumblr and zines create a forum for out of the box thinking and re-search that creatively and thoughtfully sidesteps censorship. The paper is via a personal lens of lived experience and aims to uplift the recognition and validation of non-standard methods of information sharing used by BIPOC, Queer, and disabled communities. It underscores how these methods serve as vital avenues for community building, education, and the preservation and dissemination of marginalized voices and experiences. The paper emphasizes the necessity of acknowledging and integrating these unconventional sources into the broader landscape of information sciences, arguing for their value and legitimacy alongside traditional information repositories.

Read the article here: Information and intersectionality in the digital millennium

Keywords: Intersectionality, Tumblr, zines, virtual communities, nontraditional media, community building

2025 – Book Chapter – Information, Power, and Reproductive Health

Chapter Title: Becoming a Queer Disabled Ancestor

Book Description:

Information, Power, and Reproductive Health encourages readers to explore the inextricable intersection of reproductive health information and power. Rooted in a framework of reproductive justice, it explores the ways in which power plays a central role in how reproductive health information is created, controlled, withheld, and shared. Deeply entrenched ideologies about which bodies are deserving or undeserving of reproductive care, which facets of reproductive life are worthy of research, which issues are taboo or frequently dismissed, and how to control bodies considered unruly all affect what health information is easily accessible or perhaps hidden from those who need it. Legislative, bureaucratic, medical-scientific, economic, and familial systems and structures shape reproductive health information, and framing information production and consumption as a social act can help us to trace these structural and ideological forces in the reproductive health landscape and locate transgressive sites of information sharing that speak back to power. Chapters address the continued and more-urgent-than-ever interest in reproductive health, feminism(s), womanism, critical theory, and praxis in librarianship and information studies.

Purchase from Multiplicity of Books: https://bookshop.org/a/79672/9781634001526

Keywords: Health, Politics, Reproductive Health, Gender and Sexuality, Social Justice