Into the Nepantla: Visions of Racially and Ethnically Marginalized Disabled Medical Students

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:45 am - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Speculative Space: A Conversational Laboratory to Explore Speculative Education and Research in the Professions

Abstract

Introduction
Individuals living at the margins of society have, throughout history, served as truth-sayers and
seers by telling uncomfortable truths, illuminating assumptions, and seeing possible futures
that are unknowable and invisible to those who are centered, or dominant, in society. This is
particularly true for individuals who live at the intersection of multiple marginalizations and
resist either/or classification because they cannot embody just one perspective but instead see
multiple truths. Gloria Anzaldúa referred to individuals who occupy these liminal spaces
as Nepantleras - those in Nepantla, the space in between worlds. 

Modes of Inquiry and Evidence
This presentation weaves together multiple papers, using Anzalduan theories, Disability Critical
Race Theory, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies to explore multi-narratives from interviews
with medical students who are racially, ethnically marginalized and disabled. 

Results
While students in this study shared current and historical narratives illustrating racism, ableism,
and other systems of oppression, they also embodied themselves as Nepantleras and re-
constructed their own identities multiple times throughout their journey, thinking of
themselves as multiple, yet whole. Reaching beyond their current selves into a possible
world(s), they also dreamed future-oriented visions for the field of medicine. Moving back and
forth from the future into the present world(s), students illustrated how they are building those
future visions now, in their current medical school(s), families, and communities. 

Scholarly Significance
Investigations into the lives of professional learners are often necessarily bound by cross-
sectional and even longitudinal temporal distinctions. While often necessary to bound scientific
inquiry, this traditional mode of inquiry can miss the complex embodied realities of learners
living in Nepantla, who can see outside of temporality. Attendees will be invited to respond to
these visions with a hands-on activity where they can create their own small ‘space between
worlds.’ This experience invites attendees to step inside a kaleidoscope of the past, present,
and future of professions education, ultimately challenging these temporal boundaries.

Author

• Hannah L. Kakara Anderson, Maastricht University