Coalitional refusal in a neoliberal academy

Abstract

In this project, we share how we—two differently situated Women of Color, one Indigenous and one Chicana, with myriad other identities (e.g. mothers, partners, daughters, friends, co-conspirators, academics)—grew to be friends, and how we foster our friendship as a site of coalitional refusal for creating a more just academy. We offer our reflections in hopes that they will be useful to others who also want to work towards coalition and refuse the neoliberal academy.

Keywords:

• neoliberalism
• academia
• refusal; coalition; women of color

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We chose to write this paper through a series of stories, or reflections, because Indigenous scholars Archibald et al. (2019) note that stories are critical to “articulating our world, understanding our knowledge systems, naming our experiences, guiding our relationships, and most importantly, identifying ourselves” (p. 5). We took notes on all of our conversations and often journaled. We draw on our stories, no matter their form (talk or text) in this paper.

2 I have come to understand that the ranch I love so dearly is the traditional homelands placed in the care of Pueblo peoples. It was only through recent interactions detailed later in this paper that I fully realized this. I continue to grapple with how I can remediate my and my family’s historical complicity in a system of colonization and thievery.

3 Latina/o/x is not a race. It is a pan-ethnic category. Latinos can be Asian, Black, Indigenous, or mixed-race (e.g. mestizo) as well as white. When I was young, I did not have this depth of knowledge. Being Latinx meant being a non-white person who was minoritized largely due to appearance, language, and one’s class position or role in the labor force. Today, as a more informed person with greater racial literacy, I understand Latinx is a much more complex concept and that any analysis related to Latinidad must consider intragroup racial dynamics and power relations. Currently, my sense of Latinidad is complicated and I am unsure if or how I want to claim this label.

4 I use Hispanic here because, growing up, this was the most common referent. It was the identity label my family used for a long period of time, even though my Dad felt it was not representative of our heritage. As we write this in the year of 2021, Hispanic continues to be a popular referent in parts of the southwest U.S.A.

5 We are thankful that our friends, Dr. Stephanie Waterman and Dr. Kristen A. Renn, agreed to be named in our paper.

6 We acknowledge that our reflections are partial and may not reflect the views of everyone involved. However, we remain thankful for the time we spent together through 2018–2019. I (Leslie) am honored to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from the Indigenous Scholars Collective as well as Indigenous leaders from the area where the association held the conference.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leslie D. Gonzales

Leslie D. Gonzales is an associate professor in the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Learning unit at Michigan State University. She also serves as an affiliate faculty member in the Center for Gender in a Global Context and Chicano/Latinx studies. Gonzales studies the evaluation of scholars at the disciplinary, departmental, and organizational level and is concerned with the evaluation of Scholars of Color, especially those educated in historically under-resourced institutions (e.g., community colleges, Minority Serving Institutions), historically marginalized disciplines, or historically marginalized appointment types.

Heather Shotton

Heather Shotton, Ph.D. is a citizen of the Wichita & Affiliated Tribes and is also of Kiowa and Cheyenne descent. She is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies and the Director of Indigenous Education Initiatives in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Shotton's scholarship engages with Indigenous higher education, Indigenous college students, and Indigenous feminisms in academia. Her scholarship and practice have been dedicated to bringing visibility to Indigenous people and issues in higher education and transforming higher education as a site of reclamation for Indigenous communities. She served as a co-editor for three critical books that address Indigenous Higher Education; Beyond the Asterisk: Understanding Native Students in Higher Education (Stylus), Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education (Rutgers University Press), and Beyond Access: Indigenizing Programs for Native American Student Success (Stylus). Dr. Shotton is a strong advocate for Indigenous education and has spent her career advocating for Indigenous students and communities in educational systems.