Scholarly writing is traditionally written and reviewed with a positivist mindset, based on ideas of universal truths that typically remove subjectivisms, cultural experiences, and marginalized voices from the writing process. Writing in this manner fails to recognize how the societal and internalized ideas of white dominance can negatively…

In this article, we reflect on our identities as English educators of color and how they have influenced our journey to becoming academic writers. Through reconciliation with our collective experiences of linguistic violence, we share how the experiences have impacted the ways we show up as secondary and higher education English educators in our…

Academic writing is a critical activity through which scholars establish their stature in the field with ensuing academic successes. These "successes" rely on conventions that determine what questions are important to ask, what is the most rigorous methodology to employ, what constitutes "good" quality writing, and who is our…

Despite documented accounts from academics of color, literature about academic writing often overlooks their experiences as racially minoritized writers. This article addresses this limitation by situating Natalie Goldberg's (2016) composting as a writing practice of wellness. I begin by defining composting as an active process of leveraging…

This article first contextualizes the authors' perspectives and purpose to aid the reader in situating the narratives of three Black scholars. Their stories are woven together to help other Black scholars navigate and detox from the trauma of academic writing in higher education. Collectively, the authors, via a co-constructed dialogic space,…

This article discusses an effort in the early 1990s to question the naming of campus edifices to recognize California state Senator William Craven (1973-1998), who made public statements considered anti-Latino while in office. During that period, there were very few movements to rename campus landmarks. This article analyzes one of these early…

We outline our evolution as Latina, Asian, and White women sociologists using a social justice lens while studying transitions to college among youth of color. During our graduate training and early academic careers, we felt pushed to center "mainstream" theories, which often failed to account for the power struggles and intersectional…

For Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) scholars, reflecting on our journey to becoming academic writers can reveal important lessons for crafting justice oriented academic futures. Interweaving the pain, joy and wisdom from narratives on academic writing, this piece synthesizes BIPOC scholars' lessons learned, representing the…

CODA is an honored movie that combines important elements of several recent movies. The presentations of a thriving deaf community and a unique artistic community are rich and nuanced. The dilemma of a world dependent on high quality sound and a world without sound are explored and made poignant. The complexities of lives managed between separate…

In this article, I share ways in which I have used the artworks of contemporary artists to encourage middle school students to reflect on the concepts of identity, diversity, and social justice. Specifically, I focus on the "Comfort Hair" series by Yuni Kim Lang, a Michigan-based Korean American artist, and a piece from the "Giant…

Much has been written about how race and the demographic mismatch of mostly white teachers teaching mostly Black and brown students has contributed to the over-disciplining of this same population of students. Further, research has shown that when students have teachers of the same race they are less likely to experience exclusionary discipline…

This study explores the use of teacher narrative sketches in a graduate level course titled, "Language Diversity and Literacy Instruction." The narrative assignment asked students to write stories of their own experiences with language diversity in literacy or other content areas. The shared teacher narratives, which drew on their…

An urban, Black high school population share their experiences of a college preparatory counseling group specific to prospective first-generation college students (PFGCS). The salience of help seeking, as a major theme in this study, is highlighted and explored according to Black, first-generation college going students. Participant experiences…

In this piece, I use a series of "found poems" created from my notes and memos taken while teaching, first curating them into thematic poems and then reflecting on what those poems say about the affordances and constraints of teaching courses--especially those focused on equity and justice--in an online format during the COVID-19…

Movies have designated dance as a positive way for marginal and groups assigned a low status to cope with the enduring pain of inequality. A brief history of dance movies reveals the sentimental appeal of stories of coping with inequality by adopting dancer identities. The recent movie "Tango Shalom" offers an example of the use of…