Dear Academic Mama,

I am here. I am still here. I said this today after thinking about how hard life has been after finishing the Ph.D. I emailed you to ask you for a letter of recommendation again today and remembered how many times for many years, I would come to your office for a meeting and how I wish you were here.

I came to you like many who walk through your door carrying more than books and my laptop. You reminded me that This Bridge Called My Back isn’t just a catchy title, but a lived reality. And I thought about how when I met you, you helped me set down my worries, my pain, and gave me a safe place as a Xicana in academia, a survivor, a single mama and so many things I was or became in the six years I spent with you in…

If it’s Inaccessible to the Poor, Then What Is It?
By: Xicana Ph.D.

I have seen the quote many times, “If it’s accessible to the poor, it is neither radical nor revolutionary”. I agreed with this phrase, but then something happened that made me question how easy it is to call something out as not being radical or revolutionary. It is time to be honest though, call this what it is, I use the example of a recent conference I attended in this piece, but we know in the end if it is inaccessible to the poor, it is unjust. This is not social justice. Stop pretending. If a space or place is not radical or revolutionary how are they really spaces of social justice?  Are they spaces where we dismantle oppression? Or do these spaces and upholding of them also uphold these systems and practices that have kept many of…