Making Room
Making room for difference(s) is a feminist practice because it intentionally allows for those voices and perspectives that have historically been marginalised to be heard. This practice involves making room for thinking, for risk-taking, and for failure. This is not about making room for your own ideas, but it is about others. One of the tensions within making room is about ensuring that when you do make room for difference(s) that it does not become exclusive. And yet, making room as a feminist practice is not about just any ideas; they must be committed to challenging power relations.
How we can make room
Making room does not magically happen. It is a practice that must be activated. We make room for the voices and perspectives that are not always the first to be heard. For some, making room might occur in scholarship that includes nonhumans, such animals, plants, and Place; or the perspectives of young children. Making room can also happen in other places such as:
· on a panel in a seminar series
· in the video conferencing chat
· in a publication
· committee membership
· in conversation.
How have people made room for you?
I was attending my first ever educational research conference, the American Educational Research Association Conference in New York CIty. Sitting in a packed room, I was listening to one of my supervisors, Professor Celia Genishi, give a paper. When introducing her work, I heard her say, “……based on a paper that I am co-authoring with Mindy Blaise and Sharon Ryan for the Handbook of Research on Teaching…….” . This was certainly a making room move! I couldn’t believe how she publicly recognised my contributions as a doctoral student! It was as though she was offering me a seat at the table. This small act was significant and I now try and always acknowledge those that I am thinking and writing with.
(This entry was inspired by the presentation K-Killjoy given by Mindy Blaise and Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw at the Ediths Roundtable Series 2021)
Early faces of feminists making room. Professor Celia Genishi and Mindy Blaise, NYC, sometime in the mid-1990s.