This month marks an important milestone in my life, and since it also happens to be my birthday month, I thought there was no better time to share this news.
My first book will be published this October :
The Lived Experiences of a Non-Academic Woman of Colour Working in UK Higher Education available to pre-order here: https://www.abigalmuchecheti.com
Why I wrote this book
I first came to the UK to pursue a Masters degree. I worked in higher education, and later went on to complete a PhD. Along the way, I lived the very issues I raise in this book navigating predominantly white institutions as a Black woman, foreign-born, non-academic, and often made to feel like an outsider.
For years, I carried questions that were rarely spoken aloud. What does it mean to belong in spaces that so often remind you that you do not? What does it mean to contribute to institutions that value your labour but not your voice?
Too often, the experiences of women like me are overlooked in higher education. Universities speak the language of inclusion, yet their corridors and boardrooms are not built for us. They are designed to keep us on the margins, to make us useful but never central.
Although the book is grounded in UK higher education, its insights reach far beyond university walls. The patterns of exclusion I describe being marked as foreign, facing subtle forms of silencing, carrying the double burden of race and gender are not unique to academia.
They echo in workplaces, in community spaces, and in national conversations about who belongs. That is why I say the book speaks not only to the UK, but to national and international audiences. It is a contribution to a global dialogue about race, gender, and belonging in institutions that were never neutral.
The gift of an uncut voice
I am especially grateful to my publisher, Lived Places Publishing, for allowing me to write this book with an uncut voice. Too often, women of colour are told to soften, edit, or dilute their truths in order to be palatable for wider audiences.
This book does not do that. It tells the truth as I lived it, and as others confided in me. It holds the silences, the frustrations, the indignities, but also the resilience, resistance, and quiet power that women of colour bring to spaces that were not designed for us.
While it centres Black women and women of colour, it is written with everyone in mind. My hope is that readers, whether in higher education or other professional spaces, will find themselves challenged, moved, and perhaps unsettled.
For women of colour, I hope it affirms that your struggles are neither isolated nor invisible. For white colleagues and allies, I hope it opens up a deeper understanding of how gender and race intersect to shape lives, and of the solidarity that becomes possible when these truths are recognised.
But the audience is wider still. This book will be of interest to students who are navigating universities not built for them, to academics reflecting critically on their own institutions, to policy makers seeking to create meaningful change in education and work, to sociologists and researchers examining the intersections of race, gender, and belonging, and to anyone committed to imagining institutions differently.
This book has been possible because of many people. To the women and student participants who trusted me with their stories, I owe the deepest gratitude. To my editors and the team at Lived Places Publishing, thank you for guiding the process and for allowing me to write with honesty and without compromise. And to my family, thank you for walking beside me with patience, love, and encouragement.
Looking ahead
This book is not an ending, but a beginning. It is part of a larger conversation that needs to continue, about how institutions can be transformed, how silences can be broken, and how dignity can be restored where it has long been denied.
And for me, personally, it is a reminder that the stories we carry matter. That even when doors are closed, even when voices are ignored, we can still write, still speak, still create.
A final thought
As I share this milestone with you, I want to invite reflection. What stories are still silenced in your workplace or community? Whose voices remain on the margins, and how might we begin to listen differently?
I would love to hear your thoughts.
— Abbie