Claiming a Space
"Making a place feel like home, or becoming at home in a space, is for me about being mutable. I think fondly of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. How important it is, especially for women, to claim that space, to take up that space through what one does with one's body. And so when I am at my table, I am also claiming that space, I am becoming a writer by taking up that space." Sara Ahmed
I almost subtitled this blog “Half-Literate Musings of the Overwhelmed,” but I decided that would be far too pessimistic on my part—particularly given my naturally optimistic personality type. This said, I imagine that many of my musings will be half-literate because I am overwhelmed, but as I work toward claiming a space, taking up a space, and becoming the person and writer I think I want to be, I am comfortable with the insanity that is my current life and the ways I inhabit the chaos. And I hope that anyone who comes across this space will be comfortable with it as well.
So, here is a brief introduction to me (and, consequently, to some of the things I hope to address in my writing): I am an assistant professor and the WPA at a regional, research-extensive university in the deep south. My research interests are varied but seem to always return to writers who find themselves othered by academe and the ways spaces and places influence how writers perceive of themselves. I am married to a wonderful man who supports all of my life goals, and I have two daughters, an eleven year old and an eight year old. My youngest daughter has a rare metabolic bone disease, x-linked hypophosphatemia, so I am also a board member of the national organization that advocates for families dealing with this disease.
I hope that my musings on topics related to these roles will be of some interest to the blogosphere, but, more importantly I suppose, I hope that they will allow me to continue to reflect, compartmentalize, and make small differences along the way.
Welcome to my musings, and thank you for taking a moment away from your own to consider them.
