Intro

Hey y’all! 

I’ve been debating what to do for my first post, and I’ve decided that what might be most helpful is for anyone reading this to learn a little bit about me. My name is Steen, I am currently living in Western New York, but I am originally from Austin, Texas. My family still lives in Texas, although I have extended family in Idaho, Massachusetts, Illinois, South Carolina, New Mexico, and Newfoundland. I'm still adjusting to the cold and snow, because I've never had to actually drive in it before. So I'm growing my skills, I guess. 

Thinking about me as a person, I identify as Latina because my father is from Mexico and his family hails from Spain. While this part of my identity is important to me, I think it is also important that my light skin and lack of Spanish language skills often make other people read me as white -- a fact that definitely influences how I interact with and am treated by the world around me. I was home schooled, although not for religions reasons, which also effects how I interact with people. I noticed this most especially when I first started my undergraduate degree, but it continues to influence the way I view education.

My Southern roots are probably just as important an aspect of my character as anything else. I don't think my drawl is too strong, but I do use expressions like “all y’all.” I know this is mainly force of habit, but I'm also really glad that this is my default because "y'all" is so inclusive of all gender identities.

It’s probably obvious at this point, but I am a feminist and I view the world with a social justice lens. Part of what motivated me to actually take the time to create this blog is because I see the terms “feminist” and “social justice advocate” getting a bad rap on the internet. I also see some of this negativity spilling over into classroom interactions; when students talk about their experiences with gender they often start by qualifying, "I'm not a feminist, but..." Don’t get me wrong; there are certainly people who claim to be invested in social justice, but who are actually doing real harm. In my experience, these people aren't the majority of feminist or social  activists, but are instead a very vocal minority. In this way, they mimic the racism and sexism that they are struggling to undo.

Uncomfortable as it may be, acknowledging our privileges is a really important step to having productive conversations about race, sex, and gender. And if there is anything I love, it's productive dialogue about gender! I have been teaching and tutoring at the college level for about three years, and in August, I am moving to Colorado to start my PhD in Education, focusing on literacy. I am very motivated to improve the way educators interact with students, especially students that have been marginalized because of their race or gender identity.

So that’s some of the really serious stuff I want to tackle with this blog. I also want to explore other, less serious things -- talking about books and movies, sharing  my travel experiences, and discussing my continuing education, my work, and (most importantly) my cat.

So if you are interested in any of these things, you are in the right place!