Women of Color Cultivating Critical Hope Through Solidarity Work

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-17 - Cultivating Critical Hope Through Solidarity-Building and Community Engagement

Abstract

This paper analyzes the work of seven women of Color whose personal and professional identities and experiences as educators, community organizers, scholars, cultural practitioners, mothers and community members are central to their leadership of a one-day cross-university conference for aspiring urban educators across 3 mid-size universities within Chicago. We highlight our collaborative/transformative practices and processes from our varied women of Color perspectives to enacting justice-centered, healing practices within institutions of higher education seeking to disrupt the colonial relationship that exists between universities and communities. Our aims in documenting our narratives and our solidarity work are to broaden understandings of community-university relationships and develop accountable, authentic and humanistic ways of "being, knowing and doing” community-university collaborations.

Authors

• Ananka Kesari Shony

• Isaura Betzabe Pulido, Northeastern Illinois University

• Cecily Relucio-Hensler, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Valentina Gamboa-Turner, Illinois State University

• Carolina Gaete-Tapia, Blocks Together

• Erica R. Davila, Lewis University

• Ann Marie Aviles, University of Delaware