Radical and Liberatory Academic Writing: Speaking Truth to People and Power for Revolutionary Purposes

Abstract

This article introduces and frames the special issue Radical and Liberatory Academic Writing: Speaking Truth to People and Power for Revolutionary Purposes. The goal of this special issue is to feature articles dedicated to examining: (a) novel efforts to demystify academic writing as a genre and spotlight the problematics and potentialities inherent when choosing to take up radical and liberatory work; (b) various processes and projects that can be advanced through academic writing for revolutionary educational purposes; (c) dynamic approaches for developing productive academic writing programs that speak truth to people and power; and (d) possibilities for cultivating communal, affirming, and equitable academic writing spaces that can serve as sites of healing and transformation.

Advancing social justice within and outside of the academy through academic writing can be challenging work (Salazar & Rios, 2016). Academic writing plays a significant role in securing tenure and promotion, receiving grant funding, and influencing educational policy. Pressure to achieve these milestones can cause Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) scholars to be reticent about expressing social justice commitments. At the same time, the knowledge project of defining social justice, determining how to take up and frame social justice research, and, ultimately, using academic writing to advance social justice efforts in policy and practice, is necessary radical and liberatory work. As BIPOC scholars with justice commitments, this means we are often searching for various ways to possess academic writing for ourselves, for our communities, and, ultimately, for revolutionary educational purposes. In their inaugural editorial “Call Us by Our Names: A Kitchen Table Dialogue on Doing It for the Culture,” Lyiscott et al. (2021) provide a powerful illustrative example of the ways in which journal editors can shift the focus, tenor, and development of academic writing in the academy. Though BIPOC scholars recognize the importance of this type of editorial leadership and scholarship, such work is not commonplace in academic journals, which means the voices of BIPOC scholars navigating the joys and pains of academic writing are frequently muted. As such, the goal of this issue is to feature articles dedicated to examining:

1. novel efforts to demystify academic writing as a genre and spotlight the problematics and potentialities inherent when choosing to take up radical and liberatory work;

2. various processes and projects that can be advanced through academic writing for revolutionary educational purposes;

3. dynamic approaches for developing productive academic writing programs that speak truth to people and power; and

4. possibilities for cultivating communal, affirming, and equitable academic writing spaces that can serve as sites of healing and transformation.

In addition to seeking articles dedicated to these ideas, we focused attention on how the writing community can be shaped in a manner that does not reinscribe harm in the writing, peer-review, and publication process. The editorial vision was to provide opportunities throughout the development of the special issue to cultivate care and compassion in the creation and refinement of intellectual work. Efforts were made to manifest the vision throughout the peer-review process by ensuring reviewers provided feedback with intentional care, exhibited a humanizing approach to scholarship development, and looked for the good in the purposes of the manuscript. In addition, we organized a few collective special issue writing meetings to share the challenges contributors were facing while drafting their manuscripts; when requested, we provided specific feedback to strengthen their manuscripts. Not surprisingly, given the focus of the special issue, these collective meetings created space not only to release collective disappointment and trauma related to academic writing, but also to see the various ways these experiences have been and can be reframed and repurposed to stir up joy, hope, and infinite possibilities in academic writing for social justice. Ultimately, this process resulted in eight perspective pieces written and led by BIPOC scholars from various disciplines and specializations. The articles take the form of personal narratives, counterstories, testimonies, and autoethnographies, giving voice to the scholars’ lived experiences and inviting readers to connect and see themselves. Collectively, the articles explore how at different stages in our development as BIPOC scholars, we can reclaim academic writing to advance personal and collective revolutionary purposes.

[T]he knowledge project of defining social justice, determining how to take up and frame social justice research, and, ultimately, using academic writing to advance social justice efforts in policy and practice, is necessary radical and liberatory work.

The first article, “You Can Be Creative Once You Are Tenured: Counterstories of Academic Writing From Mid-Career Women Faculty of Color,” provides counterstories about how three mid-career women faculty of color are reimagining what constitutes “good” academic writing. The second article, “Advancing Activism Through Academic Scholarship: What’s in a Name (Revisited),” describes an effort by two scholars in the early 1990s to use academic writing as a space to question the naming of campus edifices that recognized a racist leader in California. The third article, “A Course in Academic Writing as a Vehicle for Personal Growth and Transformation,” centers on the experiences of two BIPOC graduate students in an academic writing class reflecting on their evolution as scholarly writers. It describes how the course changed their perception of academic writing by allowing them to overcome their fears and successfully develop publications.

Efforts were made to manifest the vision throughout the peer-review process by ensuring reviewers provided feedback with intentional care, exhibited a humanizing approach to scholarship development, and looked for the good in the purposes of the manuscript.

In the fourth article, “Our Identities as Academic Writers: An Autoethnographic Approach Toward Linguistic Solidarity,” English Educators of Color explore their academic writing by reconciling their collective experiences of linguistic violence and consider how those encounters shaped the way they teach in secondary and higher education classrooms. The fifth article, “Composting: A Writing Practice of Wellness for Academics of Color,” describes the concept of composting in academic writing as an active process that allows Writers of Color to liberate themselves in ways that advance their work while also caring for their wellness. The sixth article, “Liberating Our Writing: Critical Narratives and Systemic Changes in Education and the Social Sciences,” details the shared experiences of early-career scholars navigating tenure and promotion pressures while seeking to advance their academic writing for social justice in ways that speak truth to power. The seventh article, “Detoxing the Trauma of Academic Writing for Black Scholars: Vulnerability, Authenticity, and Healing,” features the narratives of Black scholars at different stages in their scholarly trajectory and identifies inclusive healing practices and strategies that maintain the wellness of Black scholars in the academic writing process. The issue concludes with a reflective article, “Lessons on Academic Writing: What I Learned About Myself, Us, and the Work Ahead,” that describes themes across the special issue articles by examining joyous discoveries, practical strategies, and reform possibilities for radical and liberatory academic writing. Taken as a whole, the special issue serves as an academic writing project that attempts to spur readers’ reflection on their own experiences and, through that reflective process, catalyzes action toward advancing academic writing for revolutionary purposes.

[T]he special issue serves as an academic writing project that attempts to spur readers’ reflection on their own experiences and, through that reflective process, catalyzes action toward advancing academic writing for revolutionary purposes.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).