Thread by @boricuaslavist

Should be getting ready for my class in 45 minutes, but wanted to share some thoughts about #ASEEES22 @aseeestudies . A lot of your were asking about @reees_thinktank and how it came to be. It is the result of over 10 years of work.

First, thanks to @KellyKCummings @LuceyColleen @krista_goff8 @slavprofsrc my partners in crime. They gave hundreds of hours to this effort as project co-directors. Thanks to our mentors -- you know who you are. Thanks to our students for taking the time to work with us.

National statistics show that only for males that self-identified as Black majored in Russian between 2010-2014. This weekend and the @reees_thinktank clearly show that the interest in the field is there, and that our traditional gatekeeping is problematic, to say the least.

I think about Prof. Allison Blakely, who so generously came and shared so much time and story with us this last week. I think about how alone he had to be through some of his 30 years @HowardUHistory @HowardU as he looked at history that was there but simply ignored.

I think about the older scholars I have met that have inspired me. And, frankly, I think about myself and how I still am the only Puerto Rican I have met with a Ph. D. in Slavic languages, literatures, and cultures. I've met a couple of historians, but land & lit, that's me.

I think about how powerful the panel with Prof. Blakely was -- @terrelljstarr you made history with that panel. Just confirming that.
All of this shows the complicated relationship between cultural patterns in the field and decay for support in the humanities writ large.

If we do not come together, especially the highly resourced places to advocated for the lesser resourced places, if we do not start working actively for equity, both for students and for faculty, we will be in worse trouble than we are.

The two of us at Howard are not tenure track and teach up to 4/4 each semester. I have been teaching 4/4 for the last eight years. I guess that's not common, because everyone looks at me and tells me that's a crazy lot. It's all I know.

Putting the @reees_thinktank takes time, effort, and the perspective that there are a lot more of us, just really spread out, especially in less resourced places. But put us together and we become more. "Tonight there are four of us, tomorrow there'll be more of us..."

I still cry for those friends in my generation that had to leave, not because they wanted to, but because they could not tolerate conditions in the field: isolation, lack of funding, and open hostility from members of the field. If they had stayed, there would be so many more.

So... If you think this is worthwhile, think about how you can make it so we can take the time to do this work, because it is time consuming and emotionally draining. Special shout out to my husband @bugbytesinc who took care of the house while I was away.

Without his active support, none of this would happen. Notice -- we are all women who are co-directors. And we come from a wide geographic distribution. If we do not start expanding our definition of how to get and how to belong in this field, it is not going to get better.