By Riyad A. Shahjahan For the past two years, I had the privilege of teaching an online graduate summer course on professional development and wellness. I had designed the content to integrate insights from Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (QTBIPOC) wellness literature. I also encouraged students, including health professionals, HR practitioners, educators, and administrators, to reflect on and practice self-care throughout the course. Many expressed deep concerns about burnout, impostor syndrome, shame,…
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Squeezing octopuses into a jar: The struggles and triumphs of writing
By Riyad A. Shahjahan I love writing conceptual pieces. Such pieces help surface the questions or disconnections I feel as I am impacted by real events in the world. It’s like cooking my favorite dishes and tasting the distillation of flavors after a long arduous process. Yet, the process is always messy and tends to be a journey plagued with inadequacy. “Persuading an octopus in a jar” (p. 181) emerged as one powerful image in…
What kind of ‘methodological lifestyle’ do you want as a scholar?
By Riyad A. Shahjahan A couple of years ago, a doctoral advisee was at the crossroads of what he could explore for his future dissertation. During the meeting, my brilliant Michigan State University colleague, Lynn Fendler, asked: “what kind of methodological lifestyle do you want to live? Do you see yourself engaged in talking to people? Do you see yourself analyzing images?” Lynn basically suggested going beyond the usual linear approach: reading the literature, developing…
Beyond Bilingualism: 4 Tips for Raising Trilingual Children
By Kimine Mayuzumi and Riyad A. Shahjahan As a transnational couple, for years, we’ve encountered the following question: “How do you raise trilingual kids?” Simply living a transnational and inter-linguistic marriage/relationship does not guarantee an inclusive multilingual home environment. There are moments and situations when children may question multilingualism, particularly when surrounded by monolingualism (in our case English). At times, we may question offering a multiple linguistic environment to our children as we may feel…
Dear academic dads: 5 recommendations from a faculty of color
Riyad A. Shahjahan Dear academic dads, Seven years ago, at the beginning of my academic career, my partner, Kimine, and I had dinner with a Japanese distinguished scholar in Vancouver. Given the presence of our 3-year-old son at the table, our colleague shared a personal story about his son and expressed his biggest regret in his life. While he had worked hard as an academic pursuing grants and chairing his department, he hardly spent time…