Peace and Planning

I hope your 2024 is off to a restful and joyful start. The past two weeks have kept me busy on two fronts:

• Preparing to teach my first class (solo, no less!): Community Engagement and Collaborative Problem Solving. I’m fortunate in that I’m not starting from scratch (inheriting some terrific content from the previous instructor) and it’s been fun to shuffle things around a bit. I also feel really grateful that 11 people (8 of whom I’ve never spoken to outside of an email!) volunteered their time to share their insights as guest speakers. I’m looking forward to experimenting with some strategies and rituals, especially since it’s a fully virtual class…and am probably spending *way* too much time on my syllabus 😬 Have any recommendations or words of wisdom? Anywho, I’ll probably post a few times about my experiences in the classroom – wish me luck 👩‍🏫
• Starting my research…because I successfully defended my dissertation proposal in late November (on what would have been my grandparents 71st wedding anniversary 🥰)! That means I got the green light from my dissertation committee to finally dig into all the questions (well, not all…like three of the 358) that have been swirling around in my brain for the past many moons. I’ve even already passed one (albeit the easiest) IRB hurdle so that’s a good sign! What would you share with someone about to dive into this process? Are there any tips you’d have for balancing progress with life? Honest to goodness I thank my lucky stars every day I get to do the work I do 🤓

In honor of MLK Day, I wanted to share something I took from his book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? While I wish it hadn’t taken me until 2023 to read it, I enjoyed it so much I reread it over the New Year. I was struck by so much of his writing, though I’ve found myself reflecting on one line in particular as I’ve been settling into the New Year:

Education without social action is a one sided value because it has no true power potential. Social action without education is a weak expression of pure energy.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As an educator, I want to make space for my students to explore what being a social change agent could look like, regardless of what job or career they pursue. As an academic, I’m crafting a research agenda that I hope will give activists information they can leverage as they advocate for safe streets. That’s why it feels like such a gift to be where I am, connecting learning and research to power social change 💪 How have you thought about the dynamic between education and social action? Have you found both are necessary to pursuing a more just society?

I’ve made some updates to the blog and am excited to share more reflections about my research, teaching, and advocacy journeys, while also offering up new types of content like book highlights and general musings about being a human. It’s shaping up to be a full, fun year!

In the meantime, I invite you to get curious – what comes to mind when you envision a more peaceful transportation system? ✌️🚸