(From left to right) Dr. Ezinne Ofoegbu from Santa Clara University, Leslie Uchenna Ekpe from Texas Christian University, Dr. Christopher J.P. Sewell, Dr. Emily Suh from Texas State University, Dion Tremain Harry from North Carolina State University, and Sam Owens from Texas State University.
Dr. Emily Kyung Jin Suh began her presentation by asking the room to take a deep breath in and out.
“I want to bring us together, to experience this moment, to breathe in our collective humanity,” said Suh, an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at Texas State University. “Breathe out our tensions, our fears, our insecurities that we alone are not enough.”
Doctoral student Sam Owen has taken courses with Suh. They said breathing at the top of class is a strategy Suh uses to bring her students together. Suh and Owen are studying ways to create transgender inclusive spaces in higher education, building community and amplifying joy through balance, radical inclusion, and radical love.
“What’s at the core is justice,” said Owen. “We conceptualize methods of sustaining community—creating, preserving, repairing community. It comes from engagement in struggle and willingness to be open. In your class, you create that community.”
Suh and Owen shared their research on the second day of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Conference in Las Vegas. Hundreds of academics shared studies, some discussing the importance of Black joy. Others discussed whether or not federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) are meeting the needs of their Latinx students, as institutions grapple with the seeming dichotomy of being an HSI and also classified as a top tier research university.
These explorations underscored ASHE’s overall conference goal: the humanization of higher education. Attendees came from across the U.S. to gather ideas, share information, and network with others who work to build equity and opportunity in the academic world.
