What happens when a college classroom becomes the beginning of a much larger conversation? In this episode of Queerstories of Recovery: Voices from the Margin, Dr. Danielle Bacibianco welcomes former students to revisit questions that extend beyond academia and into lived experience. Together, they examine addiction recovery through the lens of rhetorical theory, exploring how stories of recovery are shaped by language, power, identity, institutions, and culture. Drawing from classical rhetoric alongside feminist, queer, and poststructural scholarship, the conversation considers how recovery narratives are constructed, whose voices are amplified, and how marginalized communities challenge dominant understandings of sobriety, truth, and belonging. The result is a thoughtful discussion that demonstrates how critical inquiry can move beyond the classroom to foster dialogue, community, and more inclusive ways of understanding recovery.

In Season 1, Episode 3 of the Queerstories of Recovery podcast, host Dr. Danielle (Dani) Bacibianco sits down with Lisa Quinones-Fontanez, a writer, advocate, and the creator of the blog Autism Wonderland.

The episode provides an intimate and intersectional look at the journey of sobriety, identity, and resilience. Lisa Quinones is a prominent voice in the Bronx community and the neurodiversity movement. Beyond her blog, her work has been featured in various publications, focusing on the realities of parenting, sobriety, and life as a Latina in academia and recovery.

Professor Quinones delves into the realities of being a mother to a son living with autism, illustrating how her advocacy for the neurodiverse community sits at the heart of her own sobriety and self-care.

As a writer and blogger, Lisa highlights the transformative power of storytelling—or sharing one's "queerstory"—to dismantle the stigmas surrounding both addiction and disability while emphasizing the vital need for inclusive recovery spaces for people of color. 

This episode moves beyond the typical "recovery narrative" to look at how life’s various responsibilities (how career, parenting, and activism) interact with the daily commitment to stay sober. Lisa discusses the profound "unlearning" and queering that is required to show up authentically and vulnerably in every area of her life.

In Season 1, Episode 2 of Queer Stories of Recovery, Dr. Dani sits with Dee, a genderqueer sociology scholar and sober academic, to discuss how alcohol use disorder is recognized as a disability and how academic culture normalizes drinking, overwork, and exclusion.

They unpack the harm of alchogenic institutions, the challenges of being queer and sober in a Midwest Catholic university, and the limits of traditional recovery models.

Together they share personal journeys, strategies for creating queer and sober community in academia, and visions for reimagining higher education to prioritize well-being and accessibility.

Dr. Dani Bacibianco and Dr. Bryan J. McCann explore what it means to be sober and queer in academia, from conference bar culture to the pressures that equate productivity with burnout.

Together, they discuss reclaiming space, speaking truth to institutional silence, and how recovery can be a form of queer world-making.

Listeners will hear honest, personal reflections on stigma, community, and resilience, plus invitations to build sober-friendly spaces in academic life.