a manifesto in progress

refuse.

say no to overwork. say no to giving your labour to organizations that aren’t working actively against oppression. say no to systems and norms that harm students. say no to the precaritization of academic labour. say no to cops on campus. say no to civility and respectability. say no to the hidden curriculum, the tacit rules, the unspoken norms, the ways things have always been done. say no to should and ought. say no to individualizing or ignoring systemic failures. our no is beautiful and powerful.

how matters more than what.

slow down. think twice. ask more questions. no good to deliver the feminist keynote or publish the feminist book when the conference or the publisher structurally upholds inequities. no good to throw our energy into systems that cause harm. we need kinship, resistance, and joy more than we need another line on our cv. we can try to do things differently. we will fuck up, but better to try and fail than to not try in the first place.

open up.

open up processes, decisions, institutional norms, expectations. choose open access, open review, open pedagogy. explode the closed walls of the university and clear out the rubble. open says no to the for-profit university but makes sure people get paid for their work. open is not exposure or exploitation, it is loving with an outstretched hand. it is an invitation to the kitchen table. open is a feminist issue.

making is method.

make things for people. make things with people. make things because it’s fun and because it helps you to think otherwise, to think through. make things to give away and make things just to play. making is a process, a messy unfolding. make zines and memes and chapbooks and podcasts and paintings and songs. make friends. make connections. make plans. make schemes. make mistakes. make trouble.

pedagogy first.

bust pedagogy out of the classroom. pedagogy as in accessibility, as in trauma-informed methods, as in harm reduction and care over rigour (whatever that is). remember that students learn from what we do as much as what we say. model the importance of boundaries, community, sustainability. stay curious and humble. learning is a process. we are never done.

feminist friendship as method.

friendship is the work. feminist friends hold us up and hold us accountable, remind us where we come from and show us where we might go. our friends are our collaborators and our co-conspirators. keep each other alive. move at the pace of the slowest and listen to the quietest. pick berries in the sun, play with stickers, send pictures of cats, skip the panel to go to lunch. make lunch the panel. make friendship the work.

living a feminist life is something we do every day.

we are doing it right now.