Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
My commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a core value in all the work I do, including administration, teaching, researching, and everyday life. This DEI work is shaped from my positionalities as a white, queer, middle-class, college-educated, disabled femme person. Like all people, I have a lifetime of learning and unlearning left to do to dismantle the interlocking systems of oppression in our society and institutions—racism, genderism, heterosexism, classism, ableism, and more.
I honor, uplift, and center the work of trauma-informed care, transformative justice, and Black, queer feminisms, such as those outlined by the Combahee River Collective, Sara Ahmed, and other visionaries. My commitments to DEI span across many realms, with the most important being (1) snapping against systems and (2) connecting people.
Snapping against Oppressive Systems
As Black and intersectional feminism discusses, all systems of oppression overlap to create harm, especially within our institutions. While we can’t undo harm once it’s been committed, we can work to help those who have experienced harm heal and create worlds where less harm is committed. Sara Ahmed asserts a snap(ping) is “how we collectively acquire tendencies that can allow us to break ties that are damaging as well as to invest in new possibilities.” The feminist practice of snapping enables us to uproot the comfort of institutions and people abusing power and authority.
We must adopt a radical, Black feminist praxis and intentionally challenge traditions, policy, and practices that center and reinforce dominant ideologies and norms.
For example, as an administrator, I believe that organizational policies should be flexible rather than policed through rigid abstractions. To put those flexibilities into practice, I allow flexible attendance policies, challenge racist and classist ideas of dress codes and professionalism, and act with transparency and vulnerability in decision-making processes. While at Ball State University, I was a finalist for an inclusive excellence award from my DEI work as a writing center administrator and continue to work toward those values in all realms of my life. As a teacher, I reject assessment practices that center ableist and racist notions of language and writing, such as norms that prioritize perfection, standardization of one English, and Western-centric ways of communication. I’m not grading students against “the ideal of something,” as Asao Inoue asserts, but rather meeting them where they’re at—educationally and positionally—by co-constructing labor and grading expectations alongside students. Finally, as a scholar, I argue and put forward changes for policy that prioritize intersectionality, such as disrupting gender-exclusive and white-centric ideologies around sexual violence and rejecting carceral punishments as the only form of justice for survivors.
Connecting with People
When we snap against and disrupt oppressive systems, we can also recognize people as full, complex people. I believe that people cannot be reduced to a capitalistic mindset of income and productivity. Instead, we all have fully realized interests, wide-reaching connections, and messy lives outside of the academy and its organizations. Because of this, it is important for my administrative, teaching, and scholarship to work from a place of connection, care, and grace with others. From my trauma-informed practices expertise, I also recognize I’m not an expert in all areas, such as counseling or basic needs, so it’s also important to set boundaries when I am no longer the best person to connect with, and instead, if they consent, confidentially connect folks with the appropriate resources and experts. I place a high priority on forming and maintaining connections with others.
In my administrative work, I place high emphasis on creating multidirectional relationships where we all work to learn and unlearn from one another. In my teaching, I constantly work to meet learners where they are but working with them toward critical frameworks to engaging in the world. In my scholarship, I recognize that almost all administrators in higher education are there because they care about students, and I work from our shared values in this toward working collectively together for social justice and equity. Overall, I center and work toward inclusive and equitable practices across the various facets of my life and will continue to do so in my work.
I honor, uplift, and center the work of trauma-informed care, transformative justice, and Black, queer feminisms, such as those outlined by the Combahee River Collective, Sara Ahmed, and other visionaries. My commitments to DEI span across many realms, with the most important being (1) snapping against systems and (2) connecting people.
Snapping against Oppressive Systems
As Black and intersectional feminism discusses, all systems of oppression overlap to create harm, especially within our institutions. While we can’t undo harm once it’s been committed, we can work to help those who have experienced harm heal and create worlds where less harm is committed. Sara Ahmed asserts a snap(ping) is “how we collectively acquire tendencies that can allow us to break ties that are damaging as well as to invest in new possibilities.” The feminist practice of snapping enables us to uproot the comfort of institutions and people abusing power and authority.
We must adopt a radical, Black feminist praxis and intentionally challenge traditions, policy, and practices that center and reinforce dominant ideologies and norms.
For example, as an administrator, I believe that organizational policies should be flexible rather than policed through rigid abstractions. To put those flexibilities into practice, I allow flexible attendance policies, challenge racist and classist ideas of dress codes and professionalism, and act with transparency and vulnerability in decision-making processes. While at Ball State University, I was a finalist for an inclusive excellence award from my DEI work as a writing center administrator and continue to work toward those values in all realms of my life. As a teacher, I reject assessment practices that center ableist and racist notions of language and writing, such as norms that prioritize perfection, standardization of one English, and Western-centric ways of communication. I’m not grading students against “the ideal of something,” as Asao Inoue asserts, but rather meeting them where they’re at—educationally and positionally—by co-constructing labor and grading expectations alongside students. Finally, as a scholar, I argue and put forward changes for policy that prioritize intersectionality, such as disrupting gender-exclusive and white-centric ideologies around sexual violence and rejecting carceral punishments as the only form of justice for survivors.
Connecting with People
When we snap against and disrupt oppressive systems, we can also recognize people as full, complex people. I believe that people cannot be reduced to a capitalistic mindset of income and productivity. Instead, we all have fully realized interests, wide-reaching connections, and messy lives outside of the academy and its organizations. Because of this, it is important for my administrative, teaching, and scholarship to work from a place of connection, care, and grace with others. From my trauma-informed practices expertise, I also recognize I’m not an expert in all areas, such as counseling or basic needs, so it’s also important to set boundaries when I am no longer the best person to connect with, and instead, if they consent, confidentially connect folks with the appropriate resources and experts. I place a high priority on forming and maintaining connections with others.
In my administrative work, I place high emphasis on creating multidirectional relationships where we all work to learn and unlearn from one another. In my teaching, I constantly work to meet learners where they are but working with them toward critical frameworks to engaging in the world. In my scholarship, I recognize that almost all administrators in higher education are there because they care about students, and I work from our shared values in this toward working collectively together for social justice and equity. Overall, I center and work toward inclusive and equitable practices across the various facets of my life and will continue to do so in my work.
