Envisioning an East Coast RAC Planning Retreat at a Midwest Institution

• In Event: Co-Designing Futures: Latina Scholars Build the East Coast RAC Through Collective Vision and Shared Praxis

Abstract

Purpose:
This presentation offers a vision for a future planning retreat hosted at a Midwest-based institution, designed to support the development of an East Coast Research Apprenticeship Community (EC-RAC). Grounded in our commitment to racial justice, feminist leadership, and community-rooted scholarship, we propose a model where institutional leaders and Latina scholars co-design an intentional space of belonging, fementorship, and collective resistance. Rather than reporting on a completed event, this paper enacts visioning, asking: What would it take to create a relational infrastructure that centers healing and justice for Latina researchers across the East Coast?
Theoretical Framework:
This vision is guided by Critical Race Feminista Methodologies (CRFM), drawing on Chicana/Latina feminist epistemologies such as testimonio, plática, and collective dreaming [1-3,5, 9-10]. We also build on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Race Spatial Analysis (CRSA) [4, 9-10] to interrogate how institutional spaces either marginalize or affirm the leadership of scholars of color. These frameworks orient our planning toward the creation of intentional counterspaces—where the emotional, intellectual, and cultural lives of Latina scholars are nurtured as essential to knowledge production.
Methods:
This paper draws from ongoing pláticas with East Coast Latina scholars who have expressed a shared longing for a space of healing and connection. These dialogues emerged from a year of digital collaboration and build upon conversations initiated at AERA 2025. Through these relational processes, we identified not only a set of shared values—convivencia, fementorship, critical belonging—but also a collective urgency to move from dialogue to design.
As an institution, we envision our role not as hosts of a traditional convening, but as co-conspirators and thought partners. We are committed to supporting Latina scholars to shape the structure, content, and cadence of the retreat itself. Our contributions include space, logistical infrastructure, and the facilitation of practices that cultivate relational depth—rituals of welcome, time for reflection, collective art-making, and quiet space for dreaming. This retreat would prioritize intergenerational participation, nourishment, and time to move slowly and intentionally together.
Findings and Vision:
Preliminary reflections reveal that even informal, virtual gatherings have surfaced profound longing—for continuity, visibility, and a scholarly home. Scholars described existing efforts as powerful but fragmented—without a consistent hub or dedicated support, it is difficult to sustain the kind of deep relationships that fuel justice-driven work. This retreat seeks to respond to that call.
We do not offer a finished blueprint. Instead, we offer institutional commitment to walk alongside a collective of Latina scholars—to support the co-design of a space that is both a Radical Refuge [6] and a foundation for long-term leadership. Our leadership believes that educational institutions must expand what is possible when those most impacted are at the center of design.
Significance:
This paper offers an example of visionary institutional praxis—of what it means to be in true partnership with scholars of color in designing infrastructures of belonging. We see this retreat not as a one-time event, but as the beginning of a deeper, sustained collaboration toward equity and transformation.

Authors

• Mariana Souto-Manning, Erikson Institute

• Maxine McKinney de Royston, Erikson Institute