a woman is sitting on a white couch with the words real housewives out of context behind her ALT: a woman is sitting on a white couch with the words real housewives out of context behind her

What a day.

a person is walking through a dark tunnel with a light coming out of it . ALT: a person is walking through a dark tunnel with a light coming out of it .

The end of dissertation data collection is so close, I can almost reach it.

bowser is holding a video game controller with the letter w on it ALT: bowser is holding a video game controller with the letter w on it

Husband and I went to see the new Mario movie today. I just kept thinking Bowser Jr. is certainly what Mitch McConnell looked like as a child.

Home from #AERA26! It was such an edifying conference. I’m grateful for the many folks who listened to me yap about my ongoing diss data collection and offered both advice and gratifying comments. I love my scholarly community. My acknowledgments section grows longer by the day!

#AERA26 bound! Looking forward to seeing so many friends and hearing about the wonderful research y’all have conducted in the last year!

Called my congressional leaders. Then sat in silence, fretting over the inoperably disempowering mechanisms of control in this country. If our leaders won’t act when the president wages illegal war, violates international law, threatens genocide…then when?

I watched basketball, and it was enjoyable! #GoBlue

This flyer reads: Graduate Student Social: Writing & Literacies and Language & Social Processes SIGS Join fellow graduate students for a social gathering during AERA 2026! All are welcome! Thursday, April 9th at 8 pm PST JW Marriott Los Angeles LA Live Hotel Bar 900 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90015

Calling all #Literacies grad students for a combined @writinglit.bsky.social and @lspsig.bsky.social social at #AERA2026!

Preparing my #AERA26 schedule tomorrow. Any suggested sessions, y’all? Hope to see so many of y’all there!!

Someone sent me this.

So beautiful. Thank you for sharing! I’m going to mull over this for days to come. Your ideas will move with me. Part of what continuously makes these #literacies chats a great homecoming space.

It’s a lot to think through. Would love to connect sometime and hear your thoughts!

I loved this piece so much!

Thanks so much for hosting tonight's #literacies chat, @ryanschey.bsky.social! Everyone should check out Dr. Schey and Dr. Blackburn's recent RRQ piece titled "Censorship as Placemaking," found here: doi.org/10.1002/rrq....

Thanks, Dr. Smith! I’ve been thinking lots about homeplace and how they unalterably impact how we see the world.

A6: Another wonderful q! It makes me wonder about censorship as barrier-building, a closing in or cordoning off. It builds states, yet it separates. If my work is to push against the clandestine and shameful formative spaces of my past, my work must orient toward a logic of liberation. #literacies

I appreciate this response, Dr. Schey. It makes me think of our #literacies work as small massages against injustice, like the reshaping of clay.

Resonating with so many aspects of your responses, Lexi. For me, those trips to the library, which allowed me to imagine places otherwise, became the first spaces where I started thinking about deconstructing.

Right on it! Good ole Cloverport, KY. A rural community which I’ve seen experience so many changes throughout the year and will always hold a special place in my heart.

I love keeping up with your all’s work here!

A brief example from one site, an educator who is increasingly experiencing surveillance in a deeply red district has paired discussions of the past alongside critique of the present. By leaning on a historical text and asking students to draw parallels, he’s able to accomplish more critical work.

A4: Because my dad knew the intricacies of the river, he knew which creeks held surprising depth, which were shallow and to be avoided, how a storm would affect the rising tides, and how the climate above the river altered the fishing below. This, to me, is a #literacies of space and place. (2/2)

A4: I love this question. It makes me think of growing up on the Ohio River. To many, the river could be understood by its surface: smooth or rough, fast-flowing or measured. Yet my father, an adept fisherman, saw the river and its tributaries in complex ways he learned from his father. (1/2)

A3:Currently in my diss, I'm thinking a lot about how English educators recognize, confront, and work within the sociopolitical affordances and constraints of their local contexts. I'm wondering how critical #literacies may vastly differ depending on context. More soon as I continue collecting data!

A2: I hope, given our current admin's complete disregard of the humanity of swaths of people, #literacies spaces will continue historical legacies of radical practice. I think of this weekend's #NoKings protests as one example where work started in small communities became visible to many.

A1: Speaking broadly and from my own experiences, I recall so many formative clandestine spaces, veiled in secrecy and shame. While these spaces were pivotal in finally naming my queer identity, I hope other queer youth might have less turmoil in their own queer places and spaces. #literacies

Hi, everyone! Kyle Smith, PhD Candidate in Educational Studies at the University of Michigan. Looking forward to tonight's chat!

Tomorrow night! Please join us!

An exchange between two students today…

Student 1: Are you gaslighting me?
Student 2: No, I’m Gatsby-lighting you. *proceeds to laugh at her own joke*

Jeez, I’ve missed the high school ELA classroom. #Dissertation #DataCollection

Hard to have a bad day when it begins with a student comparing depictions of queerness in The Great Gatsby and Heated Rivalry. This dissertation is going to be funnnn to write!