Davidson Microaggressions Project

In this episode, DMP founder Dr. Amanda R. Martinez interviews Itziri Gonzalez-Barcenas, Davidson alum from North Carolina & Mexico, and her partner Brice Rosette, a Martinican-Parisian, about the complicated, often tension-filled decisions fueled by restrictive migration policies and personal desire to experience the world beyond border limitations to pursue academic, personal, and professional goals. Itziri and Brice started the Traveling Migrants Instagram page to share their experiences and lend insight to their followers about how borders and policy can often present limited opportunities and also how they resist the negative impact of these challenges by finding joy and beauty as they navigate spaces. They discuss their identity shifts, both self-reflectively and other-imposed, and the microaggressions they experience as they move among transnational spaces as young people of color from different racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. Interrogating topics like anti-blackness among white and people of color, whether and how to address microaggressors as a worthwhile educational corrective, and what we all must do for ourselves and our communities to keep these conversations going openly --especially with those closest to us, like family members-- Itziri and Brice offer ideas about how we can all act from any positionality.

In this episode, DMP collaborator Juan Diaz-Mercado interviews Loyola  Marymount University lecturer and University of Colorado at Boulder  doctoral candidate, Prof. Rebecca Avalos about her research on Trump's  "Make America Great Again" racial project, with a focus specifically on  Latinx communities, racial logics, nationalism, migration, and borders.  Avalos describes how historical racial scripts aggravate laws and how  Latinx subjects shift within these power matrices as embodiments of  illegalities. Avalos argues that brown bodies often represent the latest  trend of capitalism and tokenism as power shapes knowledge. She  elaborates upon how politics and racialized rhetoric can dar animo to create the conditions under which rights can be stripped away from  Others as a reaction to the browning of the U.S. to attempt to preserve  white futurity and centrality. Prof. Avalos discusses why context,  relationships, and power dynamics matter in the practice of calling out  to call in others when confronting micro/aggressions.

In this episode, DMP collaborator Jaelyn Taylor interviews University of  Memphis Communication Studies professor Dr. Andre E. Johnson about his work on race, rhetoric, and religion. Dr. Johnson describes how he found his scholarly path and why he self-proclaims a "bootleg scholar" identity, as it speaks plainly to the common experiences with microaggressions in academia that minority faculty in particular face. Dr. Johnson discusses highlights from the recent second edition (July  2020) publication of his co-authored (with Amanda Nell Edgar) book, The Struggle Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter,  in the backdrop of ongoing social justice struggles and racial unrest across the nation. Lastly, Dr. Johnson offers strategies to confront microaggressions. Check out his bio and embedded links to his scholarly work on the DMP website for further self-education.

In this episode, DMP collaborators Michi and Julia interview Davidson College Gender & Sexuality Studies professors Dr. Katie Horowitz and Dr. Melissa González about gender, sexuality, identity, pronouns, and microaggressions. They reflect upon their educational and professional paths including pivotal moments that have inspired their research and teaching agendas. Drs. González and Horowitz discuss how Davidson College’s LGBTQ+ community climate has evolved and shifted in their time as members of the college community. They offer strategies to confront microaggressions both as a microaggressee and microaggressor. These experts also elaborate upon the importance of gender pronouns and how to approach the topic in the classroom. Check out our guests’ bios below and their resource recommendations for further self-education.

In this episode, DMP collaborators Michi and Juan interview Davidson College Anthropology professors Dr. Laurian Bowles and Dr. Helen Cho about systemic racism, its manifestation in academic institutional contexts, and microaggressions. They reflect upon their educational and professional paths and discuss their experiences as students and professors, and offer their perspectives about how Davidson College has changed in light of diversity, inclusion, and equity in their time as members of the college community. Drs. Bowles and Cho offer strategies to process and deal with microaggressions both as a microaggressee and microaggressor. Check out our website (davidsonmicroaggressionsproject.org) for detailed bios and their resource recommendations to benefit us all in the spirit of further self-education. 

This first short introduction episode features the Davidson Microaggressions Project collaboration team, including Dr. Amanda R. Martinez and student collaborators Michi LaCorte, Julia Lau, Juan Diaz Mercado, Jaelyn Taylor, Ricky Pinnock, and Basil Wiering. We overview the inspiration and motivation for developing this podcast as our next project step and we highlight our slate of guests coming up. Our first full episode is coming later this week. We're excited about this initiative and we hope you all enjoy tuning in!