Professor, Mother, Daughter: Using Pláticas and Feminism of Color to Understand Place and Identity

This chapter adds perspectives to the growing body of literature on pláticas, a methodology to dialogue and theorize about ourselves, our teaching, research, and contexts. Following hooks (1994), who stated that liberation is facilitated by finding spaces to express ourselves freely, use our voices creatively, and engage in dialogue both verbally and aesthetically that (re)interprets imposed and oppressive truths, the authors show how pláticas challenged understanding of place and offered a transformative space for healing by forming new boundaries across home and professional lives. Reflecting on intimate situations while teaching on Zoom from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors found ways to challenge “being put in one’s place” (as mothers/daughters and/or faculty) and began to reimagine their identities.