By: Yulissa Chavez-Tena
During my summer internship, I had the great privilege of visiting a worker cooperative cafe and bookstore, Red Emma’s. Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Red Emma’s opened its doors to 80+ first-generation college students and shared their radical history. Students enjoyed a poetry workshop, tried Middle Eastern plant-based meals, and explored books about race, gender, capitalism, and more. It is from this experience that I finally got around to purchasing my first bell hooks book, “All About Love”. It sparked a summer of personal and professional reflection as I found myself applying hooks’ words and thoughts to my internship role.
The idea of love in a professional setting may seem inappropriate, however, the helping profession of student affairs is filled with love! Especially when it comes to social justice. hook (2000) speaks about love’s great ability to oppose oppression, “When love is present the desire to dominate and exercise power cannot rule the day. All the great social movements for freedom and justice in our society have promoted a love ethic” (98). Love is more than a feeling that aids in the survival of a species, according to hooks (2002), it includes care, affection, responsibility, respect, commitment, and trust (14). These components of love create accountability in which people make space to connect, understand lived experiences, and rally to improve the state of living for all. Love gives us faith that the world around us is capable of change. This mutuality moves love from a feeling to an action.
Centering love in student affairs is emerging through academic work that aims to impact practical skills shared in the profession. For instance, Squire, Blansett, & Wright-Mair (2022)
explore the concept of love through the contexts of settler colonialism, white supremacy, and dehumanization. Understanding higher education’s history and continued use of settler colonialism, white supremacy, and dehumanization further showcases how love can be a tool to combat injustices within higher education. They present love as a skill within its components of care, knowledge, responsibility, and respect. For instance, Squire, Blansett, & Wright-Mair (2022) explain, “Care requires intent and an awareness of impact. A care that is intentional removes itself from the confines of neoliberal whiteness; that is, it removes itself from considerations of efficiency, competition, and individualism and places decision-making in the scope of community and communal justice” (10).
Centering love in student affairs can seem unachievable considering it requires much time, reflection, and community input. However, as a graduate student studying higher education and student affairs with a passion for social justice, I see sparks of love all around the field. From affinity spaces such as the Coalition for Women’s Identities to the daily conversations I had among my classmates. The time spent in community with others can be the first step to starting a conversation about love.
References
hooks, bell, 1952-2021. (2000). All about love : new visions. New York :William Morrow
Squire, D., Blansett, R., & Wright-Mair, R. (2022). Centering love as the foundation of a racially just and decolonizing student affairs. Current Issues in Education, 23(2). https://doi.org/10.14507/cie.vol23iss2.2033
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