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The Path Toward Spiritual Activism: Queer Latinx/a/o College Student (Muxerista) Activism as Sites of Resistance, Hope, Joy, and Futurity
Get PDFThis study examined collaborators’ engagement in activism as sites of resistance, hope, joy, and futurity. We answer the following research question: In what ways do Muxeristas (Revilla, 2012), or queer Latinx/a/o college student activists, envision and act on kinship and liberation in their activism? We conceptualize our response to this question through Anzaldúa’s (2002, 2015) concept of spiritual activism. Our data analysis articulates three main components of a spiritual activism practice for Muxeristas (Revilla, 2012), which include: 1) engaging in forms of resistance through a queer and feminist world-making, 2) centering joy and love with and for each other as Muxeristas, and 3) sustaining a queer familia through liberatory and humanizing practices. Lastly, we provide a thorough discussion on the ofrendas that spiritual activism creates for a futurity rooted in the knowledge and experiences set forth by Muxeristas, which can inform the experiences and knowledges of the broader queer Latinx/a/o community and student activists in higher education
Wayward Joy in Queer Femme-inist Educational Research
Get PDFThis article draws on our experiences with “Femme Educational Futurities,” a dream-mapping (Author 2, 2023), critical arts-based, participatory-informed project about softness in K–12 schools, to explore the boundaries of queer, femme-inist research. We trace how our attempts to enact research softly (Schwartz, 2020) led us towards wayward joy (Hartman, 2019): a messy affective terrain marked by connection, vulnerability, shame, and hope. For each author, we identify what Applebaum (1995) calls a “stop” moment and explore within each instance the convergence of softness, radical love (hooks, 2000) and tender failure (Halberstam, 2011), and discuss what joy means to us as a praxis of methodological waywardness rooted in a queer femme-inist ethic
Virginia Literacy Act Expansion: Implications for Middle Schools
Get PDFThis MERC research and policy review focuses on expansion of the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA) to include support for middle school students across the Commonwealth. It explores three questions:
1. What were trends in middle school literacy prior to the VLA expansion?2. What state policies exist for middle school literacy achievement?3. What does research say about literacy intervention at the middle school level?
It concludes with a series of key takeaways and recommendations for middle school literacy policy and practice
Taming Liver Cancer with Edited-Macrophage Therapy
No full textLiver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with an estimated 1.3 million annual deaths projected by 2040. Current immunotherapies often fall short, as tumors can manipulate immune cells to protect rather than attack them. Sumit Saha’s research focuses on reprogramming these immune cells—specifically macrophages—to resist tumor deception. By deleting a novel drug target, sphingosine kinase 2, his team transformed macrophages from tumor-defending to tumor-fighting cells, enhancing anti-tumor immunity and significantly reducing tumor numbers in animal models. This edited-macrophage therapy offers a promising new approach to restoring the immune system’s natural defense and potentially reducing liver cancer mortality in the future
String Area Recital, video
No full textStudio Recital videoStrings Area Recital, videoMonday, October 13, 2025 at 5:00 p.m.Recital HallJames W. Black Music Center1015 Grove Avenue | Richmond, Virgini
Freedom to Create, Freedom to Teach: Lessons from a Liberatory Artmaking Practice
No full textThis essay explores the question, “How can a liberatory art practice inform a liberatory art teaching practice?” by examining the artistic process of Iranian artist Mahbube Parnian. Through four key themes (freedom to experiment, learning in community, identity exploration, and art as language) this essay draws parallels between Mahbube’s liberatory artmaking and pedagogical strategies that foster inclusive, student-centered classrooms. Framed within a socio-political climate that increasingly restricts liberatory teaching, this work argues that preserving justice-oriented, creative practices is not only essential to student well-being, but also an act of resistance
Community-Based Participatory Sound Play for Critical Holistic Learning
No full textThis visual essay explores what unfolded during a month-long participatory sonic space in a community art gallery in the southeastern United States. We walk through the multiple sound stations we designed to provoke playful interactions and challenge dominant hierarchical binaries that often persist in gallery and art education space (e.g., artist/audience, instrument/non-instrument object, music/noise, culture/nature). While considering these various spaces we created for nudging visiting audience members to engage with diverse sonorous objects in becoming active musicmakers, thus becoming audience-participants, we also consider the concepts underpinning our design decisions. We conclude by considering how the living sound exhibit and participatory installation cultivated radical relationalities and opened potential for the kind of critical learning needed to flourish in tumultuous times
Faculty, Louis S. Harris
No full textA photographic print of VCU professor Louis S. Harris. Harris was a part of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology for 44 years.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/rg60/1067/thumbnail.jp
Administration/Faculty
No full textA photographic print of an unnamed VCU administrator or faculty member in front of a row of buildings outside.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/rg60/1100/thumbnail.jp