Possibilities include:

• writing for social justice
• interrupting and countering microaggressions
• strengthening emotional literacies to pursue racial justice
• healing through contemplative writing
• understanding power for speaking and acting UP
• witnessing, reading, listening, and mentoring to counter epistemic injustice
• rehearsing interventions through Augusto Boal’s theatre of the oppressed
• unlearning linguistic prejudice
• teaching for “high impact” through community-based learning and undergraduate research
• aligning career decisions with commitments
• feeding our bodies, feeding our movements
• making commitments to justice actionable in everyday life …

My approach tends toward interactive presentations and hands-on workshops to raise awareness of how power functions in interactions, how normalized identities reproduce marginalization, how unintentional acts can still do harm, and how understanding the rhetorical context can help us imagine different ways to respond. As a former professor in writing, rhetoric, and literacy studies, I focus on communication (writing and reading, speaking and listening, recognizing and witnessing), as so much injustice is enacted through (a lack of relational, mindful) communication.

You can learn more about me by visiting the about page, reviewing publications, and exploring the blog. Reach out with questions or to discuss potential offerings.

Sample Presentations and Programming

Testimonials

I have really enjoyed working with Beth Godbee with our multi-year customized program CLASS Write. Faculty who have taken advantage of her workshops and retreats have loved them. I sing Beth’s praises to anyone considering her faculty development.” —Steven L. Cobb, Ph.D., Senior Divisional Dean of Communications, Media, and Performance, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS), University of North Texas

I would not be where I am today—feeling more aligned with my commitments, more whole, and more joyful—if it were not for my work with Beth and the community she has helped cultivate. I am grateful for the clarity and compassion she brings to our interactions and the way that she makes justice a practice for daily life. I feel deeply grateful for participating in the variety of options she provides to better live out commitments through writing, teaching, and daily living.” —Creative Writer in Colorado

Collaborating with Beth and Heart-Head-Hands has been a dream and a joy.

As I began my work as a new administrator of an endowment for literacy advocacy with the desire to develop a large-scale community literacies center, it was essential to have an expert, trusted, and effective community education professional to work with as I learned to crawl, walk, run and then fly in this work. Beth was that colleague.

In collaborating with Beth as facilitator of the first two programs—workshops on Planning Writing Projects and Contemplative Writing—in my then new role, I felt supported at every stage. She took the time to meet with me and my community partners to hear about what the patrons of our local libraries wanted. Afterward she worked with me to devise the workshops to fit the community’s call from among her many incredible offerings. The workshops were deeply appreciated and loved by the community partner, the Fayetteville Public Library. Feedback from the many community members who participated focused on Beth’s terrific skills as a facilitator and the enriching content of the workshop itself.

Beth is an incredible listener, a kind and yet incisive interlocutor, and the perfect person to hold space with you for something you hope to grow into existence.” —Eric Darnell Pritchard, Founding Director of the Community Literacies Collaboratory and Brown Chair in English Literacy, University of Arkansas

Throughout the workshops, Beth was so patient and encouraging. Everything in our world sets up this work to feel and seem impossible, yet Beth models a way to persevere with generosity and kindness. Beth always meets people where they really are.” —Participant in North Carolina

Truth be told, there would be no thinking and feeling and potentially surviving the university without Beth’s wisdom, humor, and generosity to guide and light the way. And to think I am just one of the many for whom Beth makes this possible! By ‘this’ I mean surviving academe. Maybe even living a little…” —Assistant Professor in Texas

I attended several writing retreats run by Beth and benefited greatly from both the compassionate atmosphere and the thoughtful, inspirational ‘co-workers’ attracted by the same values, values Beth so sensibly and clearly advocates. Beth’s articles about listening to the body when discerning a career change were foundational to my own life-changing decisions. Her sincerity and expertise are rare. Writing is meaningful when working in Beth’s spaces and her pricing tiers make space and room for all kinds of life situations.” —Administrator and Grant Writer in Austria

Early career cancer researchers at MD Anderson have a huge breadth and depth of expertise, and they need support for how to turn their knowledge into effective writing.  As formerly tenured writing professors, Beth Godbee and Candace Epps-Robertson understand the many challenges – as well as the many benefits – of writing. They are exceptional in their support, pedagogy, and guidance in helping people write for varied audiences, purposes, and genres.” —Briana Mohan, Program Director, Research Education & Training, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center