Improvising a space for us: A testimonio from a Latina Diaspora Group

Abstract

In 2018 we created our own Latina Diaspora Group to share our stories and provide support for one another to overcome barriers we face within our institution and the academy. Leveraging jazz as metaphor, we present an testimonio to provide curricular possibilities for Latina faculty to co-create, imagine, and push back on structural limitations in higher education. As part of our testimonio, we also include an original music track that represents our mode of communicating and interacting. We end with a call for other communities of marginalized faculty to join us in creating new knowledge formations and curriculum of resistance that can potentially transform academic spaces.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brittany Aronson

Brittany Aronson is an Assistant Professor in Sociocultural Studies in Education at Miami University. Her research interests include critical teacher preparation, social justice education, critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, and educational policy. Dr. Aronson earned a PhD in Learning Environments and Educational Studies from the University of Tennessee in 2014.

Ganiva Reyes

Ganiva Reyes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her research interests include Latinx student experiences in education, social justice teaching, women of color feminist theories, and pedagogies of care.

Racheal Banda

Racheal Banda is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her research interests include issues of equity and justice in education. She draws upon critical theories, including critical human geography and feminism as presented by scholars of color, to think about teachers' pedagogical practices and work with marginalized students.

Veronica Barrios

Veronica Barrios is an Assistant Professor in Family Science and Social Work. Her research focuses on understanding and exposing the culture of nondisclosure of sexual violence. Dr. Barrios works with survivors of sexual violence to inform family and social practices that silence, and to develop training for mental health practitioners around sexual abuse trauma and transformative interviewing in practice.

Martha Castaneda

Martha E. Castañeda is a Professor of Foreign Language Education in the Department of Teacher Education. She has served as the president of the Ohio Foreign Language Association (OFLA). Dr. Castañeda's research interests focus on best practices in language acquisition, instructional design, and cognitive skills as they impact foreign and second language learners.

Esther Claros Berlioz

Esther Maria Claros Berlioz received her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from Miami University of OH in 2019. Her research interests center the migratory and lived experiences of Central Americans in the United States; specifically, the educational and schooling experiences of child migrants from the northernmost countries of Central America.