Jan 24

Jan 24 The Ways in Which (Episode 1)

Welcome to the first episode of the Coloniality, Western Science, and Critical Ethnic Studies in STEM Education dissertation. This episode introduces the dissertation and provides an overview of what’s to come.

1080p (Official Video) by Sammus

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Instragram: @SammusMusic

Talk by Tina Campt titled Black Feminist Futures and the Practice of Fugitivity.

[music fades in]

I’m kind of scared of the academy
I think that my parents are proud of me
I just wish I knew how to be comfortable here --
never feel like I’m allowed to breathe
Rubbing shoulders with these old nerds
Rockin’ sweater vests in they office hours
Eatin’ hors d'œuvres while I soul search
Tryna make some sense of the ivory tower
Feeling sober
Am I just a coward?
Or a poser?
I don’t really doubt it
Or a soldier?
Books in holsters
But the setting sucks I can’t fight the power
Cuz they write books nobody reads
For these white folks that they tryna please
Recycle all the right quotes tryna cite blokes ain’t my cup of tea
(Sammus, 2016)

[1:04]

[music fades out]

“The ways in which” was a new phrase for me. It wasn’t something I said and it’s not something nobody I knew said. But lemme tell you, in the world of academia, academics say it, casually and unironically.

Now, do people with zero connection to academia, higher ed, the ivory tower, Mordor, the Swamp of Sadness, or whatever you prefer to call it say “the ways in which”? Absolutely. But for me, and heavy on the for me, this is where I first encountered the phrase. This isn’t to say that the “ways in which” should never be used, because I’m sure there are moments when it is the most appropriate phrase to use. But in my experience, in academia, most of the time “how” be sitting right there.

[music fades in]

Hey listeners! I’m LaToya Strong and I’m a doctoral candidate at The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.

I’m in the Urban Education program focusing on STEM education.

You are listening to my dissertation!

[music fades out]

The “ways in which” is a peak inside of my overall experience with academia. A lot of it I just did not understand. Perhaps it’s because I’m a non-traditional student, a popular phrase in higher ed.

[2:38]

On the surface, “non-traditional student” generally means a person who did not have parents that went to college. Below the surface, and you don’t have to go that far, just dip a toe in and you’ll see that these students tend to be not rich, not white, not male among other factors.

Academia is often complicated for the sake of being complicated. It is conservative in its traditions and rules, and it requires assimilation on some level regardless of your race, income level, gender, and all the other identifiers you can think of. Academia is like the Swamp of Sadness. If you get caught up in it you sink in the quicksand. Rest in peace Artax. And ooh chile lemme tell you, the way that scene [laughter] don’t never get no easier to watch.

[3:32]

But this dissertation in the format of a podcast, is one of the many ways where I have practiced refusal throughout this journey to make it through the swamp.

[music fades in]

The practice of refusal referenced in the title of our collective names our rejection
of the current status quo as livable it is a refusal to recognize a social order that
renders you fundamentally illegible and unintelligible it is a refusal to embrace the
terms of diminished subject hood with which we are our collective names our
striving to create possibility in the face of ongoing onslaught of anti-black
violence and like negation. (Campt, 2018)

[music fades out]

[4:38]

That was Tina Campt describing how the Practicing Refusal Collective defines refusal.

Refusal is understanding what academia is about and seeing how one is supposed to play the game, but choosing to do otherwise. That is a very surface level definition because refusal goes much deeper.

There is a long history of refusal within Black history across the diaspora. In Black Marxism, Cedric Robinson (2001) uses the phrase “ontological totality” (p. 168). When I first read that phrase I was like, “Now Cedric, you know good and goddam well there was another phrase you coulda used.”

[5:20]

Ontological totality is a collective resistance for collective survival. With this, Robinson was specifically talking about Black folks in regards to slavery and colonial imperialism.

Robinson argues that this resistance and survival as a collective effort to ensure the collective survived did not emerge because of contact with the colonizers and enslavers because it already existed. Listen, Black people did not materialize out of thin air as slaves or colonial subjects; there were whole philosophies and ways of being that existed prior to colonization and those things is what fueled this ontological totality.

[6:00]

The practice of refusal, especially as theorized by the Practicing Refusal Collective is the imagination and will to reject what is being imposed on you, and creating other possibilities in community with others.

[6:15]

[music transition]

I’ll be using this episode to provide some context for this dissertation and also set the stage for what’s to come, which is my dissertation.

And, what is my dissertation? And how many more times am I gon’ say dissertation?

My dissertation sits at the intersection of science education, ethnic studies, and digital humanities.

Science education research is about the teaching and learning of science content, principles, and processes. It also includes learning about how people engage with, understand and access science in their daily lives

Ethnic studies as defined by the “University of California Riverside‘s Ethnic Studies Department, is“the interdisciplinary social and historical study of how different populations have experienced, survived, and critically engaged the United States nation-building project (University of California, Riverside, n.d.)”

Digital Humanities is humanities research, and I’m gon’ throw social science research up in there too, combined with technology in some way. And really any field or discipline can be or can have a digital component.

[7:36]

So for my dissertation I wanted to explore, in collaboration with other STEM educators, how critical ethnic studies could be used in our various settings. For example in the classroom or in an after school program, etc.

Which begs the question, which really it does not, I just needed a transition phrase.

[music fades in]

So why a podcast. Let’s listen to a clip from the song 1080p by Sammus to answer that question.

[8:00]

[music fades out]

[music fades in]

[music fades out]

That was a clip from the song 1080p by Sammus. The lyrics capture a lot of what higher ed is, at least in my experience. But here I am, despite that. And maybe you’re here as well, despite that.

A contradiction we’re all holding.

Let’s dig a little deeper

[music begins]

I never feel like I’m allowed to breathe. I never feel like I’m allowed to breathe. I never feel like I’m allowed to breathe (Sammus, 2016)

[music ends]

Academia is VIOLENT in all caps.

[9:26]

Name a type of abuse and it’s there. Physical? Emotional? Psychological? Sexual? The power dynamics that exist between professor and grad student, between junior and senior faculty, along the lines of race, gender, sexuality, etc. creates an environment conducive for these things to occur. Let’s not forget about the land grabs, the police presence, the exclusion of the local community. Basically academia ain’t no different than any other institution.

Academia is exhausting. And it’s exhausting in an incredibly embarrassing way, especially as someone who comes from a family of manual laborers. Because I be sooo tired after a day of reading and writing. Okay so one time y'all. I spent an entire day reading one article. In fairness to myself, it was an article by thee Sylvia Wynter and we know she be in her intellectual bag right. But lemme tell you my synapses ain’t know what to do, I think they just kinda stopped working. Like my neural pathways were reconfiguring in real time, because like Sylvia, girl what? I cite that article a lot and it became very crucial, maybe foundational is a better word, it was foundational to how I was understanding and framing science. And the article, in case you too would like your neural pathways reconfigured is Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation, An Argument.

[11:05]

Regardless, my feelings, your feelings are valid. But between the books, and the chapters, and the drafts, and the collection of papers that ain’t ever gon’ get read, is all the aforementioned violence taking place, not to mention whatever else is happening in one’s life. The Swamp of Sadness, y'all. But, with all this going on, I still needed to do what I came to do. And this is where digital humanities comes in.

Josephs and Risam (2021) describe the Digital Black Atlantic as the space between “digital” and “humanities”' where Blackness and technology meet” (p. xiii). And it emphasizes how Black

communities have taken advantage of the affordances of technology to assert their humanity, histories, knowledges, and expertise” (p. xiii).

So, I am taking advantage of a technology that I have experience with, to complete my dissertation. And you know, Black folk been podcasting as a form of communication, to drive in that point of the Black Digital Atlantic. In the earlier days of podcasting there were a group of podcasters that sometimes referred to themselves as the chitlin circuit (Florini, 2015). And to understand the podcast chitlin’ circuit, you gotta understand the history of where it gets its name, which is from the chitlin’ circuit (Brown, 2014). Very briefly, because you should google it for the full history, the chitlin’ circuit were performance venues during Jim Crow where African-Americans could safely perform and get live entertainment. The history is so much deeper y'all, but it takes us somewhere else, and that ain’t where we going.

[12:48]

Also fun fact that you definitely did not ask for, child me use to tear up some chitlins. And also pickled pig feet. Like, favorite food [pause] could have eaten them everyday.

I been podcasting with the homies since 2018 and if you ask me, which you did not, we created a successful one. It’s used by many educators, teacher educators, and organizers here in the US [pause] and also globally.

[music begins]

Yeah, I just wish I knew how to be comfortable here
Yeah, just wish I knew how to be comfortable here
Yeah, I just wish I knew how to be comfortable here (Sammus, 2016)

[music ends]

[soft melodic background music fades in]

Lucille Clifton has a poem titled “Why people be mad at me sometimes”

they ask me to remember
but they want me to remember
heir memories
and i keep on remembering
mine.
(Clifton, 2012 )

[music fades out]

Humans have memory, rivers have memory, clay has memory, institutions, including academia have memory. What keeps academic memory alive is the “I did this so you must do this too” mentality that gets carried out by the people who make up academia.

[14:05]

This memory gets imposed and we’re all expected to just exist within that memory. Dissertations are supposed to be done in a very particular way; its shape, form, and structure should be recognizable to those who stayed within the confines of academic memory. And that is wack. It stifles growth, and speaks to the conservative nature of academia.

I wanted to create something that made sense for me. I find the written format, at least how academia demands it, to be very restrictive. I wanted to do something that allowed me to be creative, that allowed for flexibility which is true to the unfolding of this research and how different aspects of the research and theory build within this work.

[14:45]
[music fades in]

Rocking sweater vests in their office hours, eating hors d'oeuvre, while I soul search
While I soul search
While I soul search.
(Sammus, 1080p)

[music fades out]

What academia largely represents vs. who I think/thought I am/was do not fit. A contradiction that I don’t think I’ll ever stop grappling with. The podcast is one way that allowed me to resolve that, just a bit. Along with other moments of refusals.

[music fades in]

Tryna make sense
Tryna make sense
Tryna to make some sense of the ivory tower (Sammus, 2016)

[music fades out]

[15:22]

I, for the life of me, cannot wrap my head around the fact that most of the research that takes place in the academy is not readily available to anyone that wants to read it. I mean, yes, capitalism and elitism. But, if the research is not accessible to the people you’re doing research about, then who exactly is it for? And yes, I’m asking a question I already know the answer to, which is other academics. Academic disciplines are sometimes just echo chambers, something we’ll touch on in episode four. It was important to make this dissertation available to anyone who might feel the desire to engage with it.

[music begins]

The setting sucks, I can’t fight the power Cuz they write books nobody reads
For these white folks that they tryna please
Cuz they write books nobody reads, for these white folks that they tryna please
Cuz they write books nobody reads, for these white folks that they tryna please (Sammus, 2016)

[music ends]

Listen y'all, not everything needs to be a book, but you wouldn’t know that the way academia be making people write books. And it’s such a waste of time and energy and resources if a book isn’t the best outlet for your work. Instead of directing that time and energy to build community, support students, to rest, doing your actual work, or communicating work in a way that is more natural to you and better suited for your audience, it gets directed to jumping through hoops to satisfy people who also jumped through those hoops. Now some of us have to jump higher than others, and our hoops got sharp spikes, and our hoops aren’t stationary, they moving, and we still tryna jump through them.

[music transition]

So what is to come? What are y'all gon’ be getting yourselves into if you continue listening?

[17:00]

Again, the purpose of this dissertation was to explore, with other STEM educators, how critical ethnic studies could be taken up in STEM education. Each episode will cover various aspects of the dissertation.

Episode one is titled The Ways in Which and you are currently listening to it. I’m using this episode as a preface or prologue to explain what’s to come.

Episode two, titled Critical Ethnic Studies in STEM ItAG, is about the methodology and research context.

I had to go on a journey to arrive at Critical Ethnic Studies and the following episodes detail that journey. Think about this journey we ‘bout to go on as a funnel.

[17:50]

Okay, so we gon’ go on that journey. We’ll start broad with the history of Western Science to highlight the culture of Western Science. Then zoom in or down the funnel to link it to STEM fields today. And then, from there, we look at STEM education.

So episode three is titled The Historical Present. This is the start of the journey. I look at Western Science through a historical present lens using a critical transdisciplinary framework. What this did or what it does, is situate Western Science in its culture. We’ll look at how science operated in the past and how that impacts how it is practiced today. Basically looking at the past to understand the present.

[18:37]

That takes us to episode four. Episode four is titled Way Back When. I look at the coloniality of Western Science, which will make more sense after you listen to episode three. We look at how the coloniality of Western Science impacts STEM disciplines today. This episode uses medicine as an example. And in episode three we use botany.

[18:57]

In episode five, titled The Afterlife of Sputnik, I start to narrow the focus and zoom in. I explore how the coloniality of Western Science described in episode three and four got codified into STEM education. Which takes us to episode six.

Episode six, titled Abolition Science and Black Feminist Futurity, zooms in even more. I delve into ethnic studies and critical ethnic studies and also talk a bit more about the research.

Episode seven, is titled The Invitation. Here, I invite you to do your own ItAG. You can use the text that we used in our ItAG or use a text of your choosing. I will walk you through exactly what we did so you can do it too or use it as an example of how an ItAG can be structured.

[19:51]

And finally, well kinda finally, is episode eight, which is titled The Colonial Models of STEM Education. In this episode, I explore three models of STEM education — the Assimilationist Model, the Capitalist Model, and the Imperialist Model — that are a result of the coloniality of Western Science being codified into STEM education.

And finally, like the real finally, [pause] the finale, is episode nine titled Reflections. And I’ll be offering some reflections about all of this.

[music transition]

Before we part ways, I want to talk about what is grounding me and this work. Tina Campt described Black Feminist Futurity in a way that I have carried with me since I first heard it.

The grammar that I am proposing of Black Feminist Futurity is a grammar of
possibility that moves beyond the simple definition of the future tense as what will
be in the future. It moves beyond the future perfect tense of that which will have happened prior to a reference point in the future. It strives for the tense of possibility grammarians refer to as the future real conditional or that which will have had to happen for the future to be realized. The grammar of Black Feminist Futurity is a performance of a future that hasn’t yet happened, but must. It’s an attachment to a belief in what should be true, which in turn realizes that aspiration. It's the power to imagine beyond current fact to envision that which is not, but must be. Put another way, it’s a form of prefiguration that involves living the future now as imperative rather than subjunctive, as a striving for the future you want to see. (Campt, 2014)

[21:50]

Y’all, I incorporated this clip in my assignments, my talks, my presentations, and whatever and where ever else I could., because, I mean, did you hear it? Some of the decisions I made throughout the duration of this dissertation are somewhat, but not all of the whats, and sometimes, but not all the times, rooted in my want to embody or actively enact a Black Feminist Futurity.

For example, if I say research in academia is inaccessible, which it is, to the general public and oftentimes the target audience because most peer reviewed articles exist behind a paywall, then what am I doing to make my work more accessible. There are things that I can do NOW. Such as make my dissertation into a podcast that is not behind a paywall.

[22:49]

Is this a Black Feminist Future Project? Hmm no. I am most certainly not making that claim. But I’m grounded by it, specifically the notion of the future now. Because y'all, lemme tell you there were many of moments where your guess would have been as good as mines with what was actually happening with this dissertation. And having something to come back to, even if there were moments when I forgot it was there or I disappeared, was very helpful.

[23:18]

For all the haters ‘cause I know there’s gon’ be some. You only get half a bar. Just kidding.

Anyway, I still have to do everything that takes place in a traditional dissertation, but then I also have to produce a podcast which includes writing, recording the episodes, editing the episodes, adding sounds and music, etc. etc etc.

[24:00]

And for all the killas and the hundred dollar billas- already!

Thank you for tuning into the very first episode of my podcast dissertation. Next week, I will talk about the research context.

[music begins]

Thank you to Zahra who read Lucille Clifton’s poem. And to Des who made the songs behind both Tina Campt’s Refusal and the Black Feminist Futurity Quote.

And immense gratitude to Sammus, who without hesitation, allowed me to use the song 1080p. y'all should check out the rest of her work on whatever platform you listen to music on.

We’re going to close out this episode with 1080p played all the way through.

For coherency and flow of narrative, I did not always name who I was citing or drawing from, so please visit the transcript to see all citations and references.

[music ends]

[music begins]