Letter

Dear Kasama: I feel bad that I spent the better part of our reunion railing about white liberal feminists and other scholars who frustrate the hell out of me. And that when you asked what it was about their work that bothered me, and what was I was looking for from them, I could not [...]

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Ruptures

My first full-time teaching job was as a sociology instructor at Career U. Unlike other career schools, this one actually gave me freedom to design my own Intro to Sociology courses—certainly not the norm at most career schools. I met some pretty cool students in those classes, and we did good work. My job helped [...]

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Iskolar

When I was young(er), I wanted to grow up to be Jamie Robinson. When that proved difficult, my ambition changed to something slightly less fanciful—transnational feminist scholar activist. No, I didn’t use that term until years later, when I needed to name it for the grad school application. And now, it’s the end of the [...]

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Beautiful Music

The discussions on feminism and capitalism have been intense and somewhat discouraging (if you’re following the feminist blogs, you know where to look). So I need good news, and am thankful for this. I shared a letter earlier this week from a young Filipina teacher who was teaching music theory and guitar performance to students [...]

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Lend a Helping Guitar

This is for readers in the Philippines. Or maybe you’re not in the Philippines but can think of a way to help. Excerpts from a letter from a young teacher and community activist: Dear Readers, I am currently teaching a guitar class at the U.P College of music as part of my thesis. My students [...]

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Two Students

About a year ago, a heated exchange broke out between two of my students. This was a community college, where most of the attendees were first-generation college students. The discussion topic touched on career goals, and a shy nursing student, I’ll call her Cam, spoke for the first time. Cam did not really want to [...]

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