Laboring for Love, Toward Justice, With Joy: Wellness Work for Education Researchers in the Wake of "45"

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

To be alive and well in the current era of facism, racism, and the 45th presidency, it seems to us that curricula of healing is absolutely essential. Having personally experienced the heaviness of the political moment and engaged in casual and more formal conversations among justice-oriented comrades in the field, we know that healing, especially through the work of radical self-care and wellness, are deemed important to many other educational scholars and the production and dissemination of their scholarship, too. Framed by themes introduced in Black feminist bell hooks’ book, All About Love (2000), this interactive session will include five components: intention-setting; visualization; breath work; discussion; and gentle movement. The immediate goal of the session is to help participants center and ground in a bustling city during a busy conference. The greater goal is to teach and learn concrete strategies of a healing curriculum that can be practiced daily within and beyond academic spaces.

Sub Unit

• Social Justice Action Committee

Chair

• Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Teachers College, Columbia University

Participant

• Marcelle M. Haddix, Syracuse University

Discussant

• Crystal Laura, Chicago State University