Discovering Community as a PhD Student: Affinity Spaces in Graduate School

• In Event: Educators Combating Midwestern "Slow-Drip Racism": Spirit Healing Narratives of Women of Color in Academia

Abstract

“Oppressions are threads, and there is tapestry all part of it, and, depending on the context, there might be more pressure or equal pressure.” Dr. Adrien Wing

“When you speak out, you don’t have to sit in spaces that aren’t serving you. Find your people or you’ll fall in.” Dr. Khirsten L. Scott

As an Asian American woman who has lived in a predominately white space my entire life, I see whiteness everywhere I go. My race, my Brown skin, is clearly visible to all. I knew that being part of my PhD program as an Asian American woman would mean that I would need to tell my story. And I did worry. Would my voice be heard? Would I be listened to and validated in this Midwestern space that is predominately white?


I recall in one of the introductions to graduate school meetings there was a Q & A session. Someone asked a general question to a panel of graduate students who were from across the university: “What is the most important thing I need to know about graduate school?” An Asian woman spoke softly into a microphone in front of a large audience of about 300 students who were eager for Fall semester to begin. She said, “You need to find your people.”

I felt a jolt of panic arise in the pit of my stomach. Was she talking about race? Who do I go to? Where do I turn? Who are my people and how do I find them?

One of the first spirit injuries I realized in graduate school was a feeling of a heavy cloud
enveloping me. It was a constant question directly linked to race: how I might be perceived and would my voice be taken seriously? This injury was a feeling of dysphoria and cognitive dissonance, one that Cathy Park Hong describes as “minor feelings” (Hong, 2020, p.57). I didn’t know what my racialized experience might mean for me, my students, and my colleagues. I didn’t know who my people were, and this shook me to my core.

As I continued on in my program, in my first year as a PhD student, I found that finding more of my people meant, for me, that I needed to be involved in graduate school affinity spaces. This kind of networking and community meant that I could experience wholeness and spirit healing that honored my scholarly interests. I heard from other people of color and allies who supported me.

The more widely I cast my net to discover affinity spaces in graduate school, the more voices I heard, and the more I felt validation, representation, and a sense of empowerment. I wove a web of security around me by discovering a sense of community and understanding how intersectionality worked in these spaces. Experiencing community is a form of spirit healing and is central to how I thrive as a WOC in academia.

Author

• Tasha Adrienne Lindo, The University of Iowa