Browsing by Subject "Relationality"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
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    Intersectional Solidarities: A Design Approach to Building Collective Power in Racialized Organizations
    (2024-05) Carey, Nicole C.; Schall, Carly; Shasanmi, Amy; Edmonds, Joseph Tucker; Wheeler, Rachel
    This dissertation explores the development of a novel framework for fostering intersectional solidarities within racialized organizations, aimed at enhancing anti-racism efforts and building cross-racial coalitions. Drawing on Critical Participatory Design and grounded in real-world experiences, the Doing Intersectionality framework is presented as a practical tool for practitioners navigating the complexities of racialized organizations. It presents the importance of addressing power dynamics, belief in marginalized stories, the creation of inclusive norms, disruption of harmful narratives, implementation of transformative change, and the importance of continuous healing. Theoretical underpinnings from scholars like Gloria Anzaldúa, Patricia Hill Collins, and Audre Lorde informed the framework, emphasizing the role of consciousness, healing, and coalition-building in dismantling dominant narratives and fostering new realities in solidarity. The discussion also navigated the lived experiences of Black and/or Latinx professionals in Indianapolis, highlighting how their identity formation and relational dynamics inform cross-racial interactions and contribute to multiracial coalition-building efforts. Practical insights were shared, including challenges encountered during the design process, such as resistance to change and the emotional toll on professionals of color. The dialogue underscored the necessity of adopting an intersectional and relational lens in organizational practices to address complex social issues and promote equity and inclusivity. By integrating theoretical insights with actionable strategies, this research advocated for a new consciousness in organizational antiracism work, one that acknowledges the interconnected liberation of individuals across diverse social locations. This synthesis aims not only to contribute to the academic discourse on race, identity, and organizational behavior but also to offer tangible solutions for practitioners committed to fostering meaningful systemic change within their organizations.
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    Wayward Stories: A Rhetoric of Community in Writing Center Administration
    (2019-07) Hull, Kelin; Brooks-Gillies, Marilee; Buchenot, Andre; Layden, Sarah
    Six weeks in to my position as assistant director of the writing center and suddenly I was confronted by a cluster bombing of issues and concerns – microaggressions, depression, confusion, suspicion – each one separate but related, and threatening to tear a new hole in the already fragile foundation of community in my writing center. How do we feel, what do we do, how does a community survive when the story we’re experiencing isn’t the story we want or expected - when it is, in a word, terrible? After McKinney’s Peripheral Visions, we know our labor and our centers do not look, act, and feel cozy, iconoclastic, or focused on one-on-one tutoring all of the time. And yet, if we are going to continue to move beyond the grand narrative, a deep and meaningful understanding of community is essential. When we put our story in relation to our communities, then our story becomes just one thread in a much more complex tapestry. We cannot separate one person’s story from the story of the writing center. Each person, each story, is a stitch in the rhetorical fabric of community. Using critically reflexive stories to change and shape practice, this thesis highlights the grand narrative of community and shows how that narrative serves to stymie community growth. These stories resist boundaries. They are wayward. They are counter to the narratives around which we construct our lives. When we share stories and write together, we begin to understand the threads we’re all weaving into the tapestry – our community, stitched together through shared practice; a process that will never end, as each person comes and goes. The community will never be resolved, and in the ambiguity of boundlessness, comes a new way of seeing the world - through constellations and the dwelling in inbetween.