The following principles are some of the things I try to keep close. Not as “rules to master.” More as points of orientation, points I strive for... points I return to, question, and try to practice.

The ways I feel, think, work, write, teach, research, and relate are shaped by particular experiences, relationships, stories, readings, conversations, communities, and contradictions. They are also shaped by my own limitations and failures.

These principles are therefore not claims of perfection or innocence.

They are an attempt to ways of returning to responsibility when I lose my way. I take them very seriously.

I am interested in the space between intention and impact ... between what we believe we are doing and what actually happens. In the possibility of remaining open there. Of listening. Of changing. Of trying again.

I want to build my work around responsibility. Around the ongoing attempt to reduce harm, to attempt to notice when I make mistakes, when I hurt or harm, to differentiate mistakes and harm, while understanding their possible overlaps, to continuously practice to be open to receiving, as adrienne maree brown calls it, “Loving Corrections”, to show up, and to remain available to repair.

Guided by the words of Prentis Hemphill, I am trying to “break up with innocence.”… For me this means that I am increasingly interested in what becomes possible when we stop trying so hard to prove that we are good; and become more willing to ask what our actions create, what they affect, and what we might do next. To be present. To show up.

I am interested in theory not as something separate from life, but as something that can help us understand, transform, and repair our ways of living together. bell hooks (1991, 1) wrote in her article “Theory as a Liberatory Practice”:

“When our lived experience of theorizing is fundamentally linked to processes of self-recovery, of collective liberation, no gap exists between theory and practice.”

Inspired by bell hooks, I hope to be able to approach learning as a collective and ongoing process that can support transformation, accountability, healing, and more just ways of relating.

Principles

Reflexivity

Knowledge is produced from a position — not from nowhere. Reflexivity means continuously examining how experiences and social positions shape what I am capable of grasping as well as what I miss due to my limitations. Within this, I want to attempt to remain open to being corrected or challenged. Reflexivity thus is connected to the understanding of situated knowledge; meaning knowledge comes from somewhere. There is no view from nowhere.

Reducing Structural Harm

This work is oriented toward recognizing and reducing harm that is produced through social structures such as racism, colonialism, ableism, classism, lookism, adultism, ageism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, cissexism, transmisogyny, misogyny, and further interconnected systems of oppression. Within this I cherish the attempt to look at systems, not only individuals, yet acknowledging our agency and responsibility.

Truthfulness

Truthfulness means, for me, care in representation and willingness to stay with complexity without distortion. It means not to simplify away power relations and to not claim certainty where there is none. It goes hand in hand with the attempt to revise my understanding when needed.

Acknowledging Ambiguity while Taking Clear Stances

Many realities are complex and contradictory. This principle is about holding that complexity without falling into powerlessness or false neutrality.

Accountability over Perfection & Innocence

The goal is not perfection, innocence, or absolute correctness, but responsibility over time.

“There is no way to ‘hold people accountable.’ People can only ‘take accountability.’ Accountability is a continuous, active, and voluntary process…” — Mariame Kaba & Shira Hassan, 2019

Language as Responsibility, Not Control

Language is not neutral — it shapes perception, relations, and power.

Care as Practice, Not Just Value

Care is not only an attitude, but a way of working, a way of moving through this world. It is something we practice through how we show up, how we communicate, how we negotiate, how we distribute resources and responsibilities, and how we take responsibility.

Repair over Perfectionism and Innocence

Mistakes are inevitable in any serious practice. It matters greatly what happens afterward.

Repair is part of the work, not an exception to it. It asks to move beyond the pursuit of perfection, purity or innocence — and towards responsibility, accountability and relationship.

In “Becoming the People”, Prentis Hemphill speaks of “breaking up with innocence.” Innocence can become a way of avoiding complexity: the belief that being a good person, a caring collective or an anti-oppressive organisation or individual should mean never making a mistake and/or overlappingly causing harm. But the desire to remain innocent can make it harder to acknowledge the impact, take responsibility and participate in repair.

• Repair is part of the work, not an exception.

• Impact matters, even when harm was unintended.

• Relationships matter more than being “right”.

• Trust is not owed, but it can sometimes be rebuilt over time.

• We can acknowledge harm without demanding perfection from ourselves or others.

Abolition (as practice and horizon)

“Abolition isn’t just about getting rid of buildings full of cages. It’s also about undoing the society we live in…”
— Mariame Kaba & Shira Hassan

Abolition is not only negation, but construction. It links critique with the building of alternatives. It understands systems of harm as relational and transformable

“When I tell people I am a prison abolitionist and that I believe in ending all prisons, they often look at me like I rode in on a unicorn sliding down a rainbow. Even people engaged in social movements, people who concede that the current prison system is flawed, voice their critiques but always seem to add, “But it’s all we have.”
— Walidah Imarisha

Imagining Otherwise

I refuse the closure of “there is no alternative.”

“For all of our ability to analyze and critique, the left has become rooted in what is. We often forget to envision what could be. We forget to mine the past for solutions that show us how we can exist in other forms in the future.“
— Walidah Imarisha

Embodied and Holistic Practice

Understanding is not the same as transformation. We cannot think our way out of every pattern, nor can we always immediately implement what we might cognitively understand. Learning and change are embodied, emotional, relational, and material processes.

“Theory is not inherently healing, liberatory, or revolutionary. It fulfills this function only when we ask that it do so and direct our theorizing towards this end."
— bell hooks (1991, 2)