What Does the Writer Owe the Reader?

Up until my third year of doctoral studies, I’ve mostly considered how to read. But as we progress through our studies and head out into the wild, academic world, the task we’ll all increasingly confront is how to write. What do we want to say, and how do we want to say it?

Embodied Experiences Navigating Harmful Literature

Potential sensitive/heavy topics: discussion of mental health, quotation regarding people experiencing mental health conditions.

Institutions of Higher Learning Must Do More

The first time I quoted Karl Marx was when I was in my Principles of Sociology class at Fresno City College. I was writing a paper on my experience with alienation in the many parts of my life.

Whose Class is it, Anyways?

“Decolonize the canon.” Sounds innovative, creative, and timely and has so much potential to ignite social change in ways academia has never imagined. As a student who’s traveled through “colonized” academia, decolonization is music to my ears. But as a first-generation Eritrean American, graduate...

ASA Presidential Address

Soft music piped through speakers in the ballroom as I entered, trying to find an available seat. Three screens featured ASA’s “Bureaucracies of Displacement” image, the theme of the conference. This image featured a gradient, moving from pink in the lower left corner to a slight purple in the...

Beyond the Diagnosis: Prioritizing Race and Culture in Aphasia Treatment

What is aphasia? Imagine you wake up one morning and turn to tell your partner “good morning”. You know exactly what you want to say, you’ve said this phrase everyday for as long as you can remember, but on this day the two words just won’t come out. 

A Recap of the Panel of Pundits

I walked into the ballroom with red, yellow, and blue lights and a large table set up for the panelists on a stage. Though this was my first experience at the American Society on Aging Conference, I had heard of the Panel of Pundits and how generative, witty, and informative the conversation seemed.

Letters of Advice

The following three letters are self-written notes by Zaire Sims to Zaire Sims, with advice to her younger self, present self, and future self. Letter to younger self Dear Penny, I always liked this childhood nickname for us -- Penny. Some basketball player had this name. I can’t even tell you...