Critical Conversations Collective

We are aiming for $5,000 to sustain our projects by scheduling writing retreats to finish our dissertations, meetings, and paying community member speakers that come to our speak to the CCC. Rarely is there an opportunity for PhD Students of Color in social sciences to acquire funding to focus on writing, as the other UW spaces/funding made available to those in the humanities (Simpson Center) and those in the hard sciences (Friday Harbor) are not available to us in order to focus on writing for dissertations. Our overall project is twofold: support doctoral students finishing their dissertations and sustain the ecosystem of CCC through writing, speakers and community building events and celebrations. During the 2022-2023 academic year, we are going to continue bringing 1st and 2nd year students into our independent study group in order to sustain the legacy of CCC in sustaining Students of Color. We also plan to continue to invite community members and other doctoral students into the space as speakers and hope to compensate them for their time, take writing retreats as a group and fill the gaps in our collective work from our overall projects to adhere to the sustainable development goals such as climate action, affordable and clean energy, zero hunger, clean water and sanitation and life below water. Below are the specifics on the dissertation projects:

• Pl’s “Black Girl Refusals, Consent, and the Possibilities of Chosen Spaces” is a qualitative study exploring how Black girls’ refusals disrupt ways they are framed as illegible (i.e., invalid) in U.S. schools and communities. Built around ethnographic, arts based, and YPAR methods, participants across three generations of Black girls and women engage in focus groups with integrated arts based practices to reflect on their educational experiences.
• P2's Asian Critical Race Theory (AsianCrit) in Community Learning Spaces, centers the teaching practices, experiential knowledges, and social justice perspectives of Asian women and non-binary community organizers in Seattle. The purpose of the study is to inform teacher education from a community-based AsianCrit and feminist lens. Collectively, they plan to create a community zine intended to include the art work, stories, and resources to support educators across learning communities.
• P3's project aims to examine how participation in healing circles impact the mental well-being of Students of Color and highlight cultural practices, tools, and events used in their healing process. This community-centered dissertation stems from her already existing partnerships with The Root of Us-and the Critical Conversations Collective-This project ultimately informs how various fields (social work, education, and public health) can better holistically support Students of Color in and out of educational settings.
• P4's Yo Aquí y Vos Allá: Community, Identity, and Well-Being Among Immigrants from Central America will center the experiences of immigrants from Central America in the US. Through a mixed-methods approach rooted in visual counter storytelling and critical quantitative social networks analyses, this project will create an opportunity for conversations around connection beyond borders, communities, identities and well-being among youth and families from the Central American diaspora.
• P5's Holding and Making Space for Learning and Place, focuses on how learning and identity development are mechanisms to
  facilitate/promote spatial belonging, agency and self determination to build/understand the culture of a place. His work is with an organization called Sawhorse Revolution who conduct youth design-build projects, supporting youth getting involved in the civic process of development in red and yellow lined areas.

Sustainable Development

This project aligns with the following sustainable development goals: Good Health and Wellbeing, Sustainable Cities and Communities, and Partnerships. The focal point of CCC is and has always been about holistically caring and sustaining one another in and out of academia. Because of this, the Good Health and Wellbeing goal directly connects with our mission of CCC, but also how each of our individual projects centers the wellbeing of Communities of Color. Additionally, Sustainable Cities and Communities and Partnerships goals align with our group because much of the work we do is grounded in community and making sure our projects are collaborative and sustainable in the communities we work and live in. For example, our group is intentional about inviting local community members to speak with us because we see the value in those who are directly impacted by injustices within their cities such as gentrification and/or police brutality. We make it clear to the communities we work with that they matter, their lived experiences are valuable and that they deserve to be part of projects that are collaborative and grounded in community in order to best support the people. Although each of us have different research focuses, we all strive for justice and liberation in the communities we work with.