With gratitude, I write to share a new article: “‘Because We’re Going to Mess Up’: Practices for Accountability—Not a Piecemeal Approach” co-authored with good friend and frequent co-author Rasha Diab and published in College Composition & Communication (CCC). This piece has been a long time coming. We started drafting in 2019; first submitted in 2020; and have been revising, reshaping, and attempting to bring it to life these past 5+ years. The article arises, as ... Read more ...
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Mentoring Writers Well? 3 Assumptions about Mentoring Writing
What is involved in mentoring writers well? How can mentors support writers and writers’ various projects and aspirations? What are starting points for learning to mentor writing? So many of us (especially in higher education, literacy education, community education, and adjacent fields) are involved in mentoring and coaching writers. But, typically, we don’t have much training when it comes to mentoring. And much less for mentoring writing! Back in February, I ... Read more ...
Honoring Struggles and Showing Up Imperfectly for Palestinian Liberation
To show up in this piece, which I’ve been trying to get out for weeks, I’ve realized that the only way to do so is to bring my full messy self. I don’t want to polish writing when that’s not true to the process or the way forward. As writers, we often have lots of discarded text and false starts. And we often spend hours weaving threads together into a cohesive whole. I really appreciate this work, and it gives me joy to do the weaving. Stitch by stitch, I understand ... Read more ...
Highlighting a New Publication: Chapter and Supplementary Material in Best of Journals in Rhetoric and Composition 2021
I am writing to share a new publication: a chapter in Best of Journals in Rhetoric and Composition 2021, edited by Kristi Girdharry, Charles Lesh, Jessica Pauszek, David Blakesley, and Steve Parks and published with Parlor Press (2023). This chapter includes both a reprint of my previous article “Rhetorical and Pedagogical Interventions for Countering Microaggressions” co-authored with Rasha Diab and with contributions by Cedric Burrows and Thomas Ferrel. It also ... Read more ...
Voting as Harm Reduction, Public Outcry, and Collective Responsibility
On the eve of elections in the United States, I share three orientations to voting: voting as harm reduction, public outcry, and collective responsibility. These are three ways I think about voting as everyday action aligned with striving toward justice. Three ways to vote even when it hurts, even when the heart aches. Why My Heart Hurts on Election Day and Why Voting Still Matters As I wrote back in 2018, my heart hurts on election day. And it does today, leading up to ... Read more ...
Q&A with Chloe de los Reyes: Teaching as Continued Learning and Unlearning
This interview with Chloe de los Reyes highlights connections among language and literacy education, lived experiences and positionalities, and striving for social justice. Chloe is a faculty member (Assistant Professor of English) at Crafton Hills College in Southern California. Prior to this position, she worked as and advocated for adjunct faculty for many years. We met almost two decades ago when both teaching and researching in campus writing centers. And we’ve ... Read more ...
Microaggressions: Too Sanitized, Too Safe, and Too Small?
I’m grateful to share a new article: “Do We Really Understand Microaggressions?” which is published online with Ms. Magazine. This piece is co-authored with Rasha Diab and part of our ongoing research on countering microaggressions. Here’s the opening: In recent years and especially since summer 2020, in the aftermath and reckoning of George Floyd’s murder, the term “microaggression” has become commonplace. Every week, new stories highlight racial microaggressions in ... Read more ...
Q&A with Cedric Burrows about His New Book Rhetorical Crossover: The Black Presence in White Culture
This Q&A blog post features Cedric D. Burrows, Ph.D., an assistant professor of English at Marquette University and author of the new book, Rhetorical Crossover: The Black Presence in White Culture (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020). Cedric’s scholarship focuses on African American rhetoric, cultural rhetorics, social activism, and the legacies and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Movement. As a colleague of Cedric’s, ... Read more ...
Q&A with Rasha Diab: Pursuing Peace as Everyday Practice
Since starting this series of interviews, I’ve wanted to highlight Rasha Diab, because she’s one of the most important people in my life. More than a co-author and friend, Rasha is truly an accountability partner: the first person I turn to process experiences, to understand emotions, to grow into new understandings, to repair harm I’ve done, and much more, including to laugh and cry and rage. Rasha has a way of holding potential—visualizing the best self—while staying ... Read more ...
Career Discernment for Academics: An Interview with Self-Compassionate Professor
I’m grateful to Danielle De La Mare of the Self-Compassionate Professor for inviting me to do an interview that’s become “Episode 19: Career Discernment with Dr. Beth Godbee.” This interview relates both my career discernment story and how I understand career discernment as a lifelong, ongoing process of finding and following the “strong yes.” Here’s what Danielle says about the interview: “Former professor, Dr. Beth Godbee, joins me for the first episode of Season 2! ... Read more ...
