About

Welcome to Heart-Head-Hands.com, a mix of blogging and research writing—along with e-courses, webinars, workshops, coaching, consulting, and speaking—all focused on everyday living for justice (social, racial, and environmental justice).

Living for justice means making commitments to justice actionable in everyday life. Actions include:

• engaging regularly in contemplative practices, such as meditation, divination, yoga asana, and reflective writing.
• considering what emotional literacies—embodied awareness, recognition, intelligence, courage, and response-abilities—are needed when striving for justice.
• practicing everyday feminism, or a way of living that questions internalized sexism and values equity and justice.
• advocating for matters in higher education, including more meaningful teaching and learning, career discernment, and equity in education.
• striving toward racial justice and interrupting whiteness, white supremacy, and intersectional inequities.
• enjoying vegan + gluten-free recipes toward eating in a way that minimizes harm and nourishes the body.
• connecting this personal question of why vegan? with the political work of ecofeminism and movements for social, racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice.

Through blog posts, you’ll explore these and other matters.

You’ll also learn about me—the author, Beth Godbee—an educator and former college professor who believes our fully embodied selves matter in the world.

We can’t just think our way out of the incredible injustices, dehumanization, violence, and wrongdoing that characterize everyday life. We must feel and act, too.

We need our heart, head, and hands for envisioning and enacting a more just world. We need deep commitments to justice and an attitude of “try-try again” for striving to live out these commitments—both in everyday moments and for the long haul.

This vision guides the work you’ll find here, but don’t let BIG thinking fool you. There’s lots of attention to small matters like sugar, pantyhose, and poop. As we get into the nitty-gritty of everyday life, we’ll weave the mundane and material with deeply relational, ideological, and spiritual matters.

This is a space for you. A messy, imperfect, human space. A space for making commitments, striving, and learning.

Want to learn more? Take a look around, explore some recent or featured posts, and check out an e-course or two. Let me know what you’d like to see addressed, and consider subscribing, sharing, and supporting this project.

With love, on this journey with and alongside you,

Beth (she/her)

About Me: Beth Godbee

I’m an educator living in Washington, D.C. with connections to many places, including Wisconsin, Georgia, and Tennessee. I write from my identities as a white, feminist teacher and researcher; reiki and yoga practitioner; hiker and vegan. My deepest commitments are to equity and justice. These commitments lead me to write about intersectional identities, embodiment, power, and rights, among other matters. In this blog, I document my ongoing efforts, struggles, and attitude of “try-try again” to align with these commitments.

I come to this work as an educator, researcher, entrepreneur, and public writer after two decades in higher education. In 2018, I left a faculty position after being promoted with tenure to Associate Professor of English (Writing Studies) at Marquette University. Previously, I studied composition and rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Ph.D.); academic, professional, and technical writing at Georgia State University (M.A.); and education, political science, and women’s studies at Agnes Scott College (B.A. and secondary teaching certification).

Throughout my career, I have facilitated workshops, given presentations, and consulted with nonprofits, libraries, church groups, colleges and universities, professional associations, and racial justice coalitions. I’ve also taught a wide range of courses, including “Writing for Social Justice,” “Contemplative Writing,” “Ethnography of the University,” and “Building Resilience for Racial Justice.”

Now, I offer interactive workshops, one-with-one coaching, and online courses, including “40-Day Practice: Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility” and “Career Discernment for Academics: Aligning Career with Commitments.”

If you’re interested in learning more, please visit the Offerings page, review some of my publications, and get in touch about possible collaborations.

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This photo reminds me of the creative possibilities arising from the heart, head, and hands. Summers in Wisconsin can be colder than expected. When traveling in June, a group of friends and I were far too cold—shivering and looking for any extra clothing. By sharing “emergency gloves,” we found a way to share in the warmth: each of us with one hand covered, one uncovered. Together, we created some warmth, much laughter, and good memories that remind me still today that we need solutions rooted in solidarity and mutual support. Together, we can create warmth, even in chilly conditions.