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The level of personal investment is high in both the academic and the activist world; it is even higher when those two worlds overlap. I am a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, as well as a community activist and educator in the Jane and Finch community. After reading my Masters thesis, on neoliberalism and gentrification in Jane and Finch, a former professor encouraged me to apply for my Ph.D. Prior to that encounter, I never imagined that the academy was a place for me, as the higher I moved up the academic ladder, the more discrimination I experienced, in insidious ways. Activism and my community grounded me; it gave me a reason to subvert systems of white, patriarchal domination. However, these systems find ways of breaking you; your spirit, your drive and everything you work for. 2015 has taught me that burnout for activist/ academics is a real phenomenon, and what is really at stake is our mental health and well-being.
Read More2015 taught me that we each have a personal practice. As a Black female scholar, I am learning that what I do each day as an educator, a colleague, a community member, a relative, and a friend are parts of an evolving practice of truth-seeking and meaning-making. I am learning to develop and articulate a personal practice that is reciprocal and transparent.
Therefore, this piece is part of that articulation process.
Read MoreBy Ellen Moll, Michigan State University
As another presidential election cycle is underway in the United States, voters face, in addition to ad fatigue, mega-donors, and other absurdities of how the country currently elects its leaders, the news media’s increasing tendency to report on the “horse-race” aspects of elections. In addition to being a distraction from more substantial inquiry into the candidates’ positions, these horse-race analyses bear the added distinction of regularly reducing complex identities (ethnicity, gender, age, and others) into over-simplified, homogenized voting blocs. As election coverage intensifies, it will be valuable to look at media portrayals of Asian American voters in recent presidential elections; I will focus here primarily on mainstream news media outlets. Closer examination reveals that these portrayals are especially interesting in light of the way that Asian American citizenship historically has always been contested.
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