This raw reflective post shares what I have been struggling to put into words: a desire for relationship and recognition, even during transactional moments like registration. Specifically, I’m reflecting on what I’m learning and how I’m longing for sliding-scale registrations to be a form of relationality itself—where all people are recognized and resourced. Can registration be relational? What would that mean, especially when money is involved and we live within the ... Read more ...
systemic oppression
It’s Valentine’s Day, and I’m Again Writing with Heartache
My heart is with you and all of us grieving, raging, and moving through the day with heartache. My heart is with all of us and our people connected with Michigan State University (MSU) and all people impacted by gun violence. With DC and Southern California, with so many people, so many locations. My heart is with all of us living in a state of terror -- in the terrorizing nation-state of the United States and in the midst of normalized everyday violence. My heart is ... Read more ...
Doing the Holidays Differently: Untangling from the Mythical Norm and Revising Rituals for “the Holiday Season”
Preface: This post took me more than six weeks to write. I started drafting on the winter solstice, so it feels right to publish on the cross-quarter day imbolc. I’ve needed the time to sit with the questions I share in this post—questions that are sure to keep evolving. I hope you’ll come with me on this journey into my spiritual life and desire to do the holidays differently. The Holidays Are Hard. Do They Have to Be? For me and for many of us, the holidays are hard. ... 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 ...
Continuing to Respond to the Supreme Court’s Decision Overturning Roe
Dear Beloved Reader, I began this post during Friday’s writing group, where I was when the Supreme Court released the Dobbs decision—overturning Roe v. Wade, restricting legal abortion access, and undercutting reproductive justice. I felt held in deep companionship through the news. And I remain incredibly grateful for activist-educator-writer-friend-colleagues who show up in the world with commitment and care. Now, more than ever, I feel the need for community—for ... Read more ...
Reframing Burnout and Recognizing the Collective Experience
Today, I have a new article published in Inside Higher Ed: “Honoring Ourselves and Each Other Through Burnout.” Here’s the opening: In the past few months, nearly all my conversations have focused on burnout. One friend is running on fumes, another wonders how to keep teaching when her body says no and still another rattles off a near-endless list of what’s not getting done. Such stories are nearly endless, too. The recent Inside Higher Ed opinion piece “Academe, Hear ... Read more ...
Commitment Statements: Questions and Answers Pointing Toward Action
Commitment statements are living documents: a way to clarify deep dedications and priorities and to make them actionable both in everyday life and for the long haul. For several years now, I’ve been working with commitment statements as a way to better understand my own commitments and where I’m out of alignment with them—and, importantly, to realign and strive toward justice. This work has grown out of my collaborative research on “Making Commitments to Racial Justice ... Read more ...
The Holidays Are Hard: Naming What’s Hard and Offering Support
The holidays are always hard for me, as I know they are for many of us. There are so many expectations, longings, memories, disappointments, and things to grieve. At the same time when the days are shorter and seasonal depression kicks in, there are additional demands on our time and emotional capacity. There are broken boundaries and boundary violations. Family conflicts and forced happiness. Over-consumption, over-indulgence, and over-exhaustion. Loneliness, ... Read more ...
Countering Imposter Syndrome: Workshop Handouts and Resources
Welcome to this page of handouts and resources for the upcoming presentation “Countering Imposter Syndrome and Affirming the Right to Belong.” Designed for students and faculty, this presentation is sponsored by the Doctor of Education (EdD) in Educational Leadership at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The event will be held remotely via Zoom on Tuesday, May 4th 6:00-7:30pm Central time. Workshop Description How can we (researchers, mentors, advisors, ... Read more ...
Q&A with Tamika Carey: “Gestures Are Easy. Reckoning Is Hard.” On Prioritizing Wellness and Liberation
I’m particularly excited about this Q&A blog post with Tamika Carey, Ph.D., an interdisciplinary scholar whose work is not only shaping the fields of cultural rhetorics, African American rhetorics, and feminist rhetorics but also deeply impactful for literacy studies, cultural studies, and women’s and gender studies. Tamika Carey is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Virginia, an award-winning author, and a committed educator. I came to know ... Read more ...
