Testimonios de las Travesadas: A Borderland Existence of Women of Color Faculty

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Constructing and Challenging Borders in Educational Theory and Practice

Abstract

COVID-19, resultant economic crisis, and continued endemic violence of white supremacy and anti-Blackness has exacerbated Women of Color faculty experience, particularly around labor and navigating the academy. Through Anzaldúa’s borderlands framework and faculty testimonios and pláticas, this paper explores, contests, and reimagines the fixed, shifting, and messy boundaries of academia for four Women of Color faculty. Findings illuminate the strained boundaries of personal and professional, the intrusion of homes as sacred spaces, and the continued and expanded demands of labor. These narratives address the layered complexities regarding resistance, changes in geopolitical safety, and comparative gratitude. In doing so, this study stresses the material and structural conditions of shifting and permanent borders while pushing for reimaginations towards a more equitable campus.

Authors

• Katherine S. Cho, Miami University

• Racheal M Banda, Miami University - Oxford

• Érica Fernández, Miami University

• Brittany A. Aronson, Miami University