Storying our experiences in the academy as a means of resistance and survivance

Today’s polarizing socio/historical-cultural contexts challenge the intersectionality of practitioner-scholars committed to justice, particularly those of us from historically marginalized groups, constraining our ability to design careers that align with our values and transform education. Recent efforts to restrict free speech and eliminate diversity, inclusion, and equity (e.g., Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard 600 U.S. 181 (2023)) within education have heightened pressure to conform to white, heteropatriarchal supremacist, and neocolonialist paradigms, resulting in a need for new strategies of resistance. In response, we share snippets of our lives in the academy as we have worked to create congruence between our values and career roles. We do so through the use of storywork) and living theory. Through our stories, we identify themes of (a) interrelationality; (b) responsibility; (c) resistance; and (d) survivance, which can aid practitioner-scholars navigating neocolonialist, white, heteropatriarchal supremacist contexts.