This has been a surreal semester in a surreal year. We have had to share pain, milestones, and celebrations at a distance, through screens. Yet, as I reflect on the year, I am humbled at how our center community came together and achieved so much to be proud of and celebrate.
We marked the end of the semester with a virtual celebration for our graduating students. At this event, our students spontaneously shared narratives about their learning, their journeys, and what they are carrying forward from their time in the Center. They shared stories of how their personal transformations shaped transformations in their family and friends, stories of how the knowledge and skills they gained will infuse feminist anti-racist work into their careers, stories of how care and community in the Center sustained them during their time at UF (and hopefully beyond). These students’ stories guide Center faculty and staff through the hardest times.
At the graduation event, I was holding the moment of joy and celebration. At the same time, I noted the heaviness we have been feeling individually and collectively. We are holding the relentless killings of Black folks by police, the racism and violence against Asian American people, the particular misogyny and gendered-violence deployed against Asian American women, the disproportionate health and financial burdens of the pandemic on BIPOC communities.
In this context, I have great admiration for the care and labor that I have seen from all of you in our center community. Students, staff, faculty, affiliates, and friends have worked to maintain support and community through making space in and outside of the classroom, organizing programs to promote sharing, caring, and healing, and showing up day after day for each other, our families, and for the Center.
As featured in this issue of the newsletter, we are ending this academic year with successful faculty searches and hires, forward movement on our department proposal, a plan of action and assessment for addressing anti-Black racism and supporting BIPOC students, faculty, and staff, just to name a few accomplishments. We are also saying farewell and good wishes to two of our faculty colleagues. These are all significant milestones in any year, let alone in a year as trying as this has been.
In this moment, while we hold the gravity of the pain, the anger, and the resolute determination to keep doing the work of social justice, I am also very thankful to celebrate and share our joy and pride in what we have achieved this year, in solidarity and community.