Voices in Vulnerability

Abstract

Our stories matter. In this collection, six Cal State LA educators draw from personal testimonies, ancestral histories, classroom experiences, and justice-focused critical theories to advance a pedagogy of radical openness and mindful positionality. Asserting the need for affective, embodied connections to academic work, these essays call into question the value of objectivity practices and non-emotive scholarly performances, situating these higher education traditions within cultures of privilege, exclusion, and suppression. Together, the authors consider questions connected to our contemporary experience of teaching and learning. How do we coauthor ourselves into our scholarship? What transgressions do we commit by revealing ourselves in our work? How do purposeful acts of vulnerability empower us with deeper critical insights? By repositioning the starting point for academic inquiry within the stories that shape us, these essays invite deeper and more personally meaningful engagement with our areas of study and stronger connections between ourselves, our students, and our communities.