Title: Still I Rise: Everyday Strategies & Tools to Thrive for Practitioners
Presenter(s):
Brandon Harris (he/him)
Jamese Carrell Epps (she/her)
Room: Thurgood Marshall 2113
Session Block(s): Session III
Time: 1:45 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Duration: 60 minutes
Program Abstract:
Inspired by Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise, this session affirms the strength and resilience of practitioners navigating daily challenges in higher education and adjacent fields. Through reflection and dialogue, we’ll explore strategies from Dr. Ashley Gaddy Robbins’ Everyday Resistance Strategies to support coping, thriving, and sustaining well-being. Participants will engage in practical planning to set boundaries, manage priorities, and (re)discover joy in their work, all while embracing confidence, hope, and purpose in the face of adversity.
Program Description:
This session contributes to advancing racial justice and decolonization by centering resistance and wellness as equity practices, especially for those navigating systemic oppression in higher education. Drawing from the work of Black women scholars such as Tricia Hersey, Nedra Glover Tawwab, and Dr. Gaddy Robbins, the sessions challenge dominant norms rooted in white supremacy—such as overwork, disembodiment, and hyper-productivity—and reframes rest, boundary-setting, and joy as tools of everyday resistance. By highlighting these frameworks and lived experiences, the session encourages participants to see wellness not as individual self-care, but as a radical, collective, and justice-oriented practice.
Through storytelling, reflective prompts, and facilitated goal-setting, the program creates space for participants to engage in intentional self-inquiry: What boundaries are needed? How can joy be reclaimed? What role does community care play in sustaining resistance? These questions promote cultural humility and inclusion, allowing participants to explore how their social identities intersect with professional expectations and systemic inequities.
The session intentionally fosters belonging and inclusion through emotional check-ins, lived experience sharing, and opportunities for attendees to co-create meaning in real time. Participants leave with SMART resistance goals, grounded in their unique roles, identities, and institutional contexts—providing actionable steps for advancing equity and inclusion in the field.
By challenging dominant wellness narratives and uplifting historically marginalized voices, we invite attendees not only to reflect personally but also to carry forward practices that disrupt oppressive norms in their work with students and colleagues.