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@AMReese07
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writer. teacher. anthropologist. yogi. laughing with my whole body.
Austin, TX
Joined January 2014
What you see: arms wide, heart open, head lifted. What you don’t see: my feet sinking into the mud beneath the water. This is how I want to approach the world and all its shifting terrain: arms open to embrace whatever’s coming. heart lifted to meet it with courage.
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"The Help" trending on netflix is all we need to know about how some ppl are educating themselves. LOLOLOL.
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I'm teaching Black Geographies this semester. A thread of some of the texts. Happy fall semester, y'all!.
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As of today, this Black girl made from the love of a community of Black people living on a dirt road in Porter Springs, Texas is officially tenured and promoted! . Siri, play Lil’ Wayne’s Six Foot Seven
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I see calls for Black or WOC leadership in the wake of Bon Appetit and SFA. Listen: asking a Black woman/WOC to take the helm of an org steeped in whiteness after white men have destroyed it is setting them up for failure if the right support mechanisms are not in place.
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ok, y'all. but forreal. can you imagine watching this film for inspiration? ::crying laughing::.
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here is a working document of mutual aid efforts in major metro areas in Texas. also links to orgs to support but check with them first. some aren't taking donations.
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. @drashleyfarmer and I Just got pushed by a line of 200+ pound officers trying to protect our students. If you’re faculty and staff we need you NOW.
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“we are born and have our being in a place of memory.”. sweet rest, bell hooks.
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Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984-1992 streaming for free this weekend.
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I was having lunch outside and a person came to ask for food, so I went inside to buy something for him. I told the woman that it was for the gentleman who had joined my table outside. she says, "he has to take it to go.".
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I have seen at least three posts from Black men talking/expressing sadness and anger about the cosplayer who they called friend. At some point, we're going to have to talk about when and where these white women enter. doesn't have to be today, though. when you're ready. :-).
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idk who needs to hear this, but it is absolutely ok to go through your calendar, decide what is not essential, and go back to people and say, "I'm sorry. I overcommitted. I can no longer do this." . oh, I know. I need to hear this.
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one day I will finish this article on Zora Neale Hurston's approach to ethnography, but for now I will say:. her approach to Kossola - "I want to know who you are" - is different from, "may I interview you for my research project on xyz?".
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I started this list for friends and fam who may be interested but not know what we're asking for we we call for abolishing the police and prisons. Sharing here in case others' need it. Not an exhaustive list. But a start:
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AUSTIN:. My power is back on at my apartment and I have a back up if it goes out again. I have a hotel room reserved in downtown Austin for tonight and tomorrow. Happy to transfer to someone. Please let me know.
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the family tributes are a reminder that being able to watch Aretha Franklin's funeral is a privilege. they're sharing her with us, sharing their grief with us, their stories with us, when they did not have to. #ArethaHomegoing.
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I'm teaching a new graduate course this semester called Embodied Ethnography. It is a practice-based course built around workshops where students will learn from some amazing ethnographers about how they "do" ethnography with their whole bodies. We will read:.
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I think laughing at the absurdity of it is the emotional break I needed. crying real tears. thank y'all for laughing/crying/eye rolling/gif'ing with me. <3.
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I left Texas after undergrad and swore I was never moving back. never say never. This fall, I'm joining @BlackStudiesUT at the University of Texas at Austin. Texas, you complicated (and sometimes fucked up) state, I'm returning.
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Tomorrow's the first day of class. and I am always excited about the first day. I'm teaching a course titled, "Food in the Racialized City." Some of the readings threaded below.
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Students being heckled by a growing group holding pro-Israel signs and flags. That assembly of people is not being arrested or approached by police.
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nothing like a tenure and promotion workshop to remind you that the university is a pyramid scheme.
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What we witnessed yesterday was atrocious. No matter what you think politically, everyone should be outraged that a group of young people who had planned a teach in and performances on the lawn of the university they attend were violently accosted in the way that they were.
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Universities are a mess. but/and I still love the first day of school! . Happy fall semester, y’all. May the meetings that should be emails be few!
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someone emailed me asking for recommendations for readings on food access/food justice. I'm going to thread some readings I use in my courses and some of my personal faves (in no particular order and not exhaustive):.
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reading reviewer comments on a special issue of nine articles. My first time seeing so many reviewer comments at one time. my conclusion: some of y'all are just plain mean. It upsets me. good, critical feedback does not have to be unkind. (retreats from twitter again).
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we're collecting *anonymous* info about academic job negotiations. this is *not* a research project. it is a public service. we will collate and distribute widely and freely in hopes that it helps people figure out what to ask for. @drashleyfarmer .
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I keep saying Im writing a book about sugar but I’m really writing about how the entanglements of carceral institutions, businesses, and land (dispossession) make place @ Black ppl’s expense and how we try to make freedom/sweetness in (spite of?) it all. Sugar is just the hook.
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stop admitting students to your grad programs if you're not going to support them and their projects. #feelingsalty.
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The first book in the @UNC_Press Black Food Justice series edited by @hannagarth and me: . FOOD POWER POLITICS: THE FOOD STORY OF THE MISSISSIPPI CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT by Bobby J. Smith II
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I will never understand university employers asking faculty, staff, and students for money during giving campaigns.
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As the language of return/going back to "normal" increases as vaccine production increases, some critical questions to keep asking:. “What does it mean to return? Is return possible? Is it desired? And if it is, under what conditions and for whom?” (Sharpe 2016, 60).
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or, because it is also an example of how food establishments are places where violence plays out on a daily basis in ways that get overlooked and excused. (recalling the violence of "if we feed them, they won't leave" makes me tear up each time. how casually it was deployed).
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Idk why I break my internet pause to share this story other than perhaps it is, unfortunately, a good example of what Dr. Azeezat Johnson shared today in her lecture, of "feeling the edges of other people's noncare" - even though in this moment I was feeling it only secondarily.
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I declined something for the fall to protect my leave time, and the person responded with such a gracious, affirming email re: honoring my boundaries and wishing me several weeks of rest. it made me realize just how few gracious responses I receive when I have to say no.
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On being a professor who was also a first generation college student (and who mentors and teaches first generation college students):.
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"the job of the neoliberal government is to manage people for the purpose of capitalist accumulation" - Dionne Brand.
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or, because it reminds me that these moments maybe the best thing is to just sit with someone, share in a delight and kindness. even when everything in you rages and wants to burn it all down.
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In addition to food and housing, people need MONEY. Expensive pipe repairs, lost wages, etc.
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The headline and framing of this article reinforce and legitimize white supremacy and the belief that black farmers in particular are getting something they don’t deserve.
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"Abolition is not a synonym for resistance; it encompasses the ways in which Black people and our accomplices work within, against, and beyond the state in the service of collective liberation. As an analytic, abolition demands specificity" - Savannah Shange, Progressive Dystopia.
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Dr. Ruth Wilson Gimore's impact is deep and wide. And whenever I hear people talk about her as a teacher, a mentor, an abolitionist, a thinker there are strong currents: how generous she is, how funny she is, how she's committed to life and living on multiple scales.
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“No One Knows the Mysteries at the Bottom of the Ocean” from Black Geographies (Katherine McKittrick and Clyde Woods). “Geographies of Race and Ethnicity 1: Black Geographies” (Pat Noxolo).
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super excited to share my latest project, Gather: a multimodal exploration of how Black people gather food and ourselves. I'm currently accepting submissions. Submit if you have anything to share! . . more website content coming soon.
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trying to frame my work in terms of what it does rather than as a response to what others' doesn't do. which is, in part, unlearning some aspects of my training.
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This fall, BLACK FOOD MATTERS will be out with @UMinnPress. Edited by @hannagarth and me! Link to description, table of contents, and preorder info below. Thanks to all the authors who were diligent, patient, and thoughtful through this process!
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It's been a long 2021 but some good news: my nephew, who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer at the beginning of the year, is officially cancer free as of today, and there is no greater joy! . I've never been so grateful to be in Texas as I have over the past six months.
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a 58 page research report about a racist school song to say the song has. "no racist intent.". this, dear readers, is one way "research" gets positioned to maintain the status quo. happy tuesday.
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students are tired. don’t take it for granted that they show up and engage anyway.
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New semester, new course! . Thread of some of the course readings for my Black Geographies course:.
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Since we met, @hiokinai said we needed to collaborate and we actually followed through (during a pandemic, no less!). Join us on April 29 for a virtual, half-day symposium on Black and Indigenous ecologies in the Pacific, Caribbean, and US South!
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If you have time, please read the Justice for Black Farmers Act. There is so much more to do. but this proposed piece of legislation is the result of a bunch of hard work that has already been done. Here's a short piece on it.
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A year to think, write, and mind my own business and skincare routine? yes, please! . Congratulations to all of the 2021 ACLS fellows! .
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TLDR: you can access “Where the Money Resides: Demystifying Academic Job Negotiations” for free here: . We hope it helps some of you feel a little less alone when negotiating. Go get your coins! Good luck!.
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Happy birthday, Zora Neale Hurston! Thank you for being, for living, for writing, for laughing, for inspiring. 💕
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Life and Debt is one of the best films for teaching about the relationships between food production, policy, debt, and imperialism.
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I wanted so much to make a scene in the restaurant when she said he had to take it to go, but what I wanted more than that was for him to have exactly what he wanted in that moment, which is what I ordered for him.
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I learned that he is a native of Austin, that his parents died 4 years ago and he's been homeless since. I learned that growing up, he was in special education and that had ordered most of what was possible for his life.
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I wanted that more than what my moral indignation could have produced (or made impossible). so, I sat with him while we waited for his food. And did the only thing that felt somewhat alright: offered to share my cookie while we waited ("waiting is weighty" - Dr. Pat Noxolo).
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“Abolition is a theory of change, it’s a theory of social life. It’s about making things.” . - Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Prison and Class Warfare.
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Black Geographies course had an assignment to curate a 10-song playlist. Each playlist includes a description explaining its themes. this semester has been a shit show in many ways. but these beautiful, diasporic playlists are moving me to tears. this class has been a joy.
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talked to a student this morning about final ethnographic project. English is their second language. In the conversation I asked, "what if you demanded that I do some of the translation work you've been doing all semester? what if you refused to translate some things?".
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The beauty of this book overwhelms me. I am particularly touched by the number of essays written by people who are not “food people”—as in, food is not their area of research or the industry they work in.
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Good morning . AUSTIN - if you find places with water, can you drop the addresses in this thread? Better even if you can find water AND deliver it. Let us know.
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hi, when you email people inviting them to do a talk for you, name the honorarium. when you say, "modest honorarium" you put the responsibility on the invitee to ask you what that means. please don't force people to ask you.
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we take care of us + we protect us are not just slogans. this work is wearying and heartbreaking even when it’s inspiring. check in. take breaks. coordinate w/comrades to have some social media/text breaks. we sustain our movements by sustaining ourselves and each other.
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after shutting off power to residents since Sunday, recommending (not demanding) that major corporations reduce their power consumption, Austin Energy finally cuts their power. and it is still framed in terms of costing the companies millions.
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and I look at her puzzled, and she quickly says, "it's just that when we feed them, they don't leave." she looked almost embarrassed saying it, and I admittedly wanted her to feel something more than embarrassment. I ordered his food and went back outside to sit with him.
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Capitalism requires inequality, and racism enshrines it. - Ruth Wilson Gilmore.
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Pleased to share that Black Food Geographies was awarded the 2020 @AmericanAnthro/@SfAAnthro Margaret Mead Award alongside Narges Bajoghli's Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic. !. More on AAA's awards here:.
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Hey mid-Atlantic, I’m returning.Fall 2019, I’ll be joining the Geography and Environmental Systems department at UMBC.
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Students being harassed and arrested at UT Austin right now. They will need support - in presence and resources. If you can do either, DM me.
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Today in Black geographies, we'll spend the class discussing the questions: how do you know what you know? how do you understand/theorize the unknowable? what is the relationship between what we know and what we don't or can't know?.
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My cousins were my first friends and in some cases like sisters. LaToya was my sister-cousin. She died yesterday. I sometimes think I overuse the word heartbroken but today, everything truly feels shattered.
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“Methodological Reflections on Geographies of Blackness” (Adam Bledsoe). “Curiosities (My Heart Makes My Head Swim” (Katherine McKittrick).
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This week @drashleyfarmer and I are running a freedom school on activism and archives for UT students. It’s been a year-long development, and although we gone be tired AF this week, we’re excited!! . Here’s the cover of the workbook students will receive.
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We have filled every AUSTIN request we've received in the past two days. We still need drivers in HOUSTON. If you can do delivery, send me a quick DM with your name, phone number, and area of town and I'll add you to the delivery thread. Can cashapp/venmo funds to support.
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50+ arrests. More coming now that university has declared evacuation. Please boost and donate.
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Tipping in to share this flyer for the one day freedom school @drashleyfarmer and I are organizing for student activists/organizers at UT. This is the first of three - each of which will have its own theme and focus. @BlackStudiesUT
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student emailed to explain why she is late to class: works early morning before class (which is at 9:25a, btw), takes a train + bus + AUC shuttle to get to campus, ubers when the shuttle is late (it's late a lot). reminder: some students do a LOT to show up in our classes.
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one of the midterm essay prompts in Black Geographies: . Reflect on a place that is home to you. Using Cedric Robinson’s theory of racial capitalism, Christina Sharpe’s concept of “the wake” and Kei Miller’s A Cartographer Tries to Map to Zion, consider the following questions:.
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This book offers much more than an analysis of fast food chains. So much here about how cities work, how whiteness moves as capital, and what it means for black franchisees to try to live into the “American dream” through ownership. Congrats @professahKwate! Fantastic book!
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Still reeling from the goodness of #PlantationAfterlives. We had a fantastic graphic notetaker, Laura Chow Reeve of Radical Roadmaps. Here are the images she created capturing the main themes of each session.
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we shopped, fed people, housed people, dropped supplies to mothers, coordinated with organizers in other cities . long day. but the work of this (small) team has been amazing. will shout them all out when things calm down. gonna turn off these devices for a bit. take care <3.
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Another day. Another zoom. Whatever, here’s the look. Not pictured: pajama pants.
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“The Anti-Blackness of Global Capital” (Adam Bledsoe and Willie Wright). Watch: Geographies of Racial Capitalism with Ruth Wilson Gilmore.
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my personal reminder that I dislike a lot about this academic gig, but then there is joy. find you a little piece of joy everywhere.
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I wrote this piece for Mold Magazine on the connections between prison agriculture, cop city, and why it is urgent for us to write new futures for this land.
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The article points out that Prof. García Peña's undergrad classes were packed and she was advising 24 graduate students - all while producing field-shaping scholarship. Tenure denials are never about Black women not doing enough.
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I'm thinking about students who are food insecure without (and oftentimes with) university resources. In my food class this morning, we talked about mutual aid, how to care and support each other, and any strategies for making sure no one goes hungry.
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