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Belonging, Bridges, And Bodies, Sheena Malhotra, Kimberlee Pérez

Graduate Student Scholarly and Creative Submissions

Feminists' negotiations of academic spaces are often facilitated by allies who act as bridges for us. We interviewed three pairs of women who are friends, colleagues, or partners and analyzed their stories for notions of how they were enacting bridgework for each other within the context of fluid identities, and shifting power relationships. We find that bridgework happens primarily along three axes in these relationships: bridging to community, bridging to power, and bridging to consciousness. This paper unpacks the differentials of bridgework done by differently racialized bodies as a means to understanding the conditions for belonging those bodies evoke. We …