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 ...
whiteness
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 ...
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 ...
Words Matter: Naming, Inspiring, Truth-telling, Revealing, and Reckoning with This Moment
Words That Matter and Inspire Me Now There are so many words to say today (in the midst of insurrection in the United States), but I want to share some words from adrienne maree brown. brown’s blog post this morning—what is unveiled? the founding wound. (poem/directive)—speaks to my soul. It speaks to festering wounds and the need to name violence and to break white supremacy: “denial will not disappear a wound.” I hope you’ll read this blog post in full. Along with this ... Read more ...
What Is White Fragility?
How can those of us who identify as white, who are conditioned into whiteness, and who have internalized white supremacy recognize and respond to emotions before they do harm? How can we take accountability when they do? And how can we recognize complicity with the long-standing harm and systems that prevent taking accountability? These questions motivate the “40-Day Practice: Strengthening Emotional Stamina to Counter White Fragility”: a daily practice of ... Read more ...
How Do We Build More Accountable Lives?
This week’s processing group asked the question: “How do we build more accountable lives?” In the past few months, I’ve been inspired by and drawn into this question, using it to reflect on how I act on (and fall short of acting on) my commitments. I’m greatly influenced by community organizer Mia Mingus whose work focuses on transformative justice and disability justice. During Wednesday’s group, I read aloud a recent Instagram post by Mia Mingus, and I want to share ... 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 ...
Resources for Sustaining Momentum and Doing Everyday Racial Justice Work
We’re in a time of urgent and important work for racial justice: lots of action alongside lots of learning and unlearning. I’m deeply grateful for the leadership, actions, and visions offered through the Movement for Black Lives Matters. I’m deeply grateful for people reaching out, being in the streets, organizing actions, holding space, and diving deep into hurt and rage and grief and more. And I’m deeply grateful for being called to this work: both in this moment and ... Read more ...
Unraveling Whiteness: A Call for More Courage
I’m thinking about whiteness—the structure, ideology, and everyday enactments—as I try to process (yet again) how white people weaponize whiteness. My heart is hurting with rage and grief from recent events, explained in these articles from The Root: “‘There’s an African-American Man Threatening My Life’: Karen Calls Police on Black Man for Asking Her to Leash Her Dog” “Outrage in Minneapolis after Black Man Dies in Custody Following Brutal Police Arrest: ‘I Cannot ... Read more ...
When Speaking Up at the Holidays Means “Complaining” and Being the Killjoy
Last year, during the holidays, I blew up (yelling, cursing, and storming off), and the experience highlighted for me the need to embrace criticisms that I’m “too sensitive,” “too critical,” and “too complaining.” On the day I blew up, I was so overwhelmed, disconnected, and worn down by systemic oppression that my body couldn’t take it. I held myself together until I couldn’t hold it in anymore: then, I released a tidal wave of rage. I’m still processing, but I’m ... Read more ...
