Walking through the Dark Forest: Embodied Literacies for Shadow Work in Higher Education and Beyond

Drawing on Anzaldúan approaches to conducting shadow work, in this paper I utilize an abbreviated form of autohistoria-teoría to demonstrate the various ways in which I have cultivated literacies or modes of intelligibilities for meeting the dark, disowned, scary, and painful parts of our memories and experiences. Such literacies have been especially necessary for navigating higher education in the U.S. as a South Asian Brown woman. Using various shadow work literacies such as ethnodrama, poems, a letter to my child-self, dream work, and contemplative mixed media painting, I highlight how possibilities for healing and well-being can be created while working in higher education and engaging in social justice work.