Justice-in-the-doing: an epilogue on whiteness-at-work in higher education

Abstract

In this epilogue, I use a variety of forms to synthesize several contributions that vibrated through the articles in this special issue on “whiteness-at-work in higher education,” which expanded on my paper offering the “whiteness-at-work” concept in 2012. I synthesize with my thinking and experience as a Korean American, disabled, cishet woman of color and all the in-betweens that these and more parts of my body and myself entail. I use stylistic play and variety to respond to and advance one of the central contributions in the special issue, which is understanding the challenges and strategies of theorizing how it feels to be structured – that is, the affective residues of gridlocking individuals and institutions – by whiteness-at-work in higher education institutions. I also mention genuine, unresolvable dilemmas about studying whiteness that these papers helped me articulate. I leave with some love to fuel this labor we have chosen.