SPARK Volume V: Building Knowledge Within Difference is now live!
The Community of Scholars Program is excited to announce the publication of the fifth issue of SPARK: Building Knowledge Within Difference. SPARK is an eZine that centers the research, experiences, and voices of graduate researchers who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color (BIPOC).
Each of the research stories, shared in this issue, stimulates new ways of making academic scholarship relevant to our communities and beyond.
"Collectively, these research stories are animated by the multifaceted ways COSP Scholars are transforming what scholarship looks like, how knowledge is produced, and for whom scholarship is directed."
Initiated by the COSP Writing Initiative in 2020 and led by the SPARK Editorial Board, SPARK is committed to developing writers through a collaborative approach to publishing research. The SPARK Editorial Board holds a fierce respect for the writers’ intentions, and the integrity of ideas, experiences, and creative form each writer brings to the community.
In Jazzing Up the Method: Music Therapy, Past & Future, Akeem Anderson makes a forceful argument for reenvisioning music therapy training, whose content currently reflects the tastes of a White and upper class audience. Anderson dives into the historical development of music therapy and its development alongside the genre of classical music. He proposes that jazz music, despite its past denigration, should be included in the catalog that music therapists are in given its style and history. Implementing the change would allow for music therapy to better service a broader and more diverse clientele.
Nou-Chee Chang’s piece Knowledge You Are is a poignant exploration of the American education system and navigating the complexities of cultural annihilation. Their poem delves into the personal journey of reconciling cultural inheritance with the pressures of conforming to dominant societal norms. Chang navigates the tension between personal identity and societal expectations with the weight of inherited knowledge and ways of being. Through evocative imagery and introspective narrative, it challenges the conventional definitions of knowledge and success, offering a powerful commentary on the intersections of race, language, and belonging.
In Building Radical Hope: An Ode to Community وجودنا (wujuduna/“our existence”) es resistencia (“is resistance”), Isabella Irtifa and Xochitl de Anda Arellanes theorize the ways in which friendship offers a deeply nourishing site for their research and community activism. Coming from very different backgrounds, together and individually, they reflect on their lived experiences as first-generation and second-generation immigrant women in Ph.D. programs, highlighting how friendship has brought joy, resilience, and support at formative moments in their lives. Anchored in their commitments to social justice, through each author sharing vignettes of personal memories with the readers, we learn about their individual histories/communities, and the important role friendship has in serving as a nexus to understanding difference.
In Ways of and Paths to Knowing (un)Certainty: An Experience of Grad School, Mskwaankwad Rice weaves together his experience as a Native graduate student in Linguistics studying Nishnaabemwin, the persistent legacies of racism that continue to shape the field of Linguistics, and culturally specific conceptualizations of the Nishnaabemwin. Sharing audio clips of his late grandmother, a fluent speaker of the language, Rice highlights the ways in which the personal and political cannot be separated. In closing, Rice calls for ways in which relational accountability of Indigenous ways of knowing must be addressed within institutions of higher education.
In Becoming Some-body: A Letter to My Mother, Diksha Shriyan writes a deeply personal and reflective letter addressed to her late mother. In it, Shriyan grapples with the complexities of identity, belonging, and the enduring impact of intergenerational inequality. Through vivid recollections of her mother’s aspirations and her own experiences with caste, race, class, and language, she explores the significance of taste (Bourdieu 1984) in shaping “academic citizenship.” Shriyan’s letter delves into the profound challenges of navigating academia as an outsider and questions whether it is truly possible to escape the cycle of inequality, or whether it will inevitably shape how we experience success and belonging.
Lindsey Willow Smith reflects on her journey of learning Ojibwemowin in her piece, Ojibwemowin Language Revitalization and a Sense of Community, Being, Love, My Grandmother and My Self. Centuries of U.S. colonialism have forced English onto Native communities, resulting in the near death of many Indigenous languages. Universities and other institutions around the country are currently making efforts to teach these important languages to future generations. It is within this wave of linguistic revival that Smith seeks to deepen her connection to her family’s past and strengthen her attentiveness to the particularities of Native culture in Michigan, the focus of her dissertation research. With a dream-like tone, Smith asks readers to consider how to employ an ethical methodology when researching a subject so close to one’s identity.
Lastly, In Promoting Inclusive Clothing Design Through Participatory Research & Shared Authority, Chukwuma Nweje Udezeh invites readers into his mission to create clothing for folks with disabilities. People with disabilities are often left out of the conversation when it comes to the creation of clothing meant to serve them. Recognizing this, in his practice as a clothing designer, Udezeh prioritizes the voices of community members in a collaborative design process. In the piece, he shares his research philosophy alongside some of the rich range of experiences and preferences gleaned from a series of community interviews.
Enjoy this issue!
COSP programs, events, and resources are open to all UMN Twin Cities & Duluth domestic graduate students.