What do You and I do with this Info

With any consumption or production of research or perspectives, the question of what to do with that information is an incredibly important one to ask yourself! For me, as I said previously, I want this work to serve as something to inspire others as well as my future self, something that I can build upon as I grow my professional experience and work within the field of Social Justice and Human Rights, building on the nuances, intersectionality, and ideas that I have presented in this capstone.

It is important to draw your own connections and conclusions from the concepts of nuance and intersectionality portrayed in this work and apply them elsewhere, with other identities and with other contexts. For example, looking at the migrant crisis on the U.S. - Mexican border with the nuanced understanding of the many cultures and origins present in that migrant flow, that Latinx identity is also not a monolith and that there are Eastern European migrants making the trek as well, that can really broaden how one looks at this crisis. It is my hope that this work can inspire folx to look deeper into identity and how complex people are, that you can continue to break down designations and that those breakdowns can change how you look at particular issues or hold yourself through your own experiences.

I hope that, broadly, this approach can help to build bridges between different folx, be it academics, activists, or anyone else as it shows the value in incorporated any number of different perspectives and to focus on intersectionality. Additionally, I do hope that this approach can also help digest information as we navigate through troubling times, to look at different angles and perspectives and to promote empathy in that way. Of course, an approach such as this is not without challenges. The time commitment as well as the breadth of research and consideration required to utilize a truly intersectional approach is certainly a challenge, as well as access to said perspectives. It is hard, unreasonable really, to expect someone to include academic or identity based perspectives in a work if they have no expertise in the area, or perhaps the inclusion of so many perspectives can distract from the main point being made by authors. Not to mention challenges for activist folx like spreading a cause too wide for the sake of intersectionality and giving up impact or support to do the work they need. Despite challenges like these, I think they can, in large part be reduced by inviting dialogue and making an effort to invite others to build on your work and broaden the conversation. Intersectional approaches are not individual, just like this approach advocates for a number of perspectives in the work we do, it calls for collaboration among people!

While this platform doesn't allow a commenting section, I invite any folx that read this to add to or start any discussions about recent events or ideas they're holding onto in the Excel sheet here or below! I ask this, to share thoughts, because discussion and dialogue is one of the best ways, in my mind, to encourage differing perspectives and to build those bridges of intersectionality and see the approach in action by a community.