Imagining Better Worlds: Nonbinary BIPOC College Student Utopias

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 5:10 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: QTBIPOC Experiences and Epistemologies in Higher Education (Table 3)

Abstract

There is a dearth of empirical research exploring QTBIPOC utopias (Muñoz, 2009) and abolitionist futures (Davis, 2003; Gilmore, 2007; Kaba, 2021). Rooted in freedom dreaming (Kelley, 2002/2022), or daring to refuse oppressive realities and instead imagine better worlds, I worked with 13 nonbinary BIPOC collegian co-researchers in this phenomenological (van Manen, 2016) study. Findings include co-researchers’ utopian visualizations, utopian feelings, abolitionist strategies, and their inspirations for utopia. These results have implications for QT research, as centering freedom dreaming, utopia, and abolition as empirical concepts will help cultivate a consciousness for ushering in better worlds.

Author

• C. V. Dolan, University of Vermont