Equipping Technical Communicators For Social Justice Work Theories Methodologies And Pedagogies Rebecca Walton Godwin Y Agboka

Equipping Technical Communicators For Social
Justice Work Theories Methodologies And
Pedagogies Rebecca Walton Godwin Y Agboka
download
https://ebookbell.com/product/equipping-technical-communicators-
for-social-justice-work-theories-methodologies-and-pedagogies-
rebecca-walton-godwin-y-agboka-46462494
Explore and download more ebooks at ebookbell.com

Here are some recommended products that we believe you will be
interested in. You can click the link to download.
Equipping Technical Communicators For Social Justice Work Theories
Methodologies And Pedagogies Rebecca Walton Editor
https://ebookbell.com/product/equipping-technical-communicators-for-
social-justice-work-theories-methodologies-and-pedagogies-rebecca-
walton-editor-37290870
Equipping Space Cadets Primary Science Fiction For Young Children
Emily Midkiff
https://ebookbell.com/product/equipping-space-cadets-primary-science-
fiction-for-young-children-emily-midkiff-46882902
Equipping Educators To Teach Religious Literacy Lessons From A Teacher
Education Program In The American South Emile Lester
https://ebookbell.com/product/equipping-educators-to-teach-religious-
literacy-lessons-from-a-teacher-education-program-in-the-american-
south-emile-lester-38226470
Equipping James Bond Guns Gadgets And Technological Enthusiasm
Hardcover Andre Millard
https://ebookbell.com/product/equipping-james-bond-guns-gadgets-and-
technological-enthusiasm-hardcover-andre-millard-7302876

Equipping Biblical Counselors A Guide To Discipling Believers For
Oneanother Ministry Bob Kellemen
https://ebookbell.com/product/equipping-biblical-counselors-a-guide-
to-discipling-believers-for-oneanother-ministry-bob-kellemen-46414470
Equipping Your Horse Farm Tractors Trailers Trucks More Cherry Hill
https://ebookbell.com/product/equipping-your-horse-farm-tractors-
trailers-trucks-more-cherry-hill-48961108
Equipping The Equippers Handbook For Raising Up Apostles Prophets
Evangelists Pastors Teacher Jonathan Welton Welton
https://ebookbell.com/product/equipping-the-equippers-handbook-for-
raising-up-apostles-prophets-evangelists-pastors-teacher-jonathan-
welton-welton-33485730
Emp Equipping Modern Patriots New Beginnings Hollerman Jonathan
https://ebookbell.com/product/emp-equipping-modern-patriots-new-
beginnings-hollerman-jonathan-55530154
Emp Equipping Modern Patriots A Story Of Survival 2nd Edition
Hollerman
https://ebookbell.com/product/emp-equipping-modern-patriots-a-story-
of-survival-2nd-edition-hollerman-55530170

EQUIPPING TECHNICAL
COMMUNICATORS FOR
SOCIAL JUSTICE WORK

EQUIPPING TECHNICAL
COMMUNICATORS FOR
SOCIAL JUSTICE WORK
Theories, Methodologies, and Pedagogies
EDITED BY
REBECCA WALTON
GODWIN Y. AGBOKA
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Logan

© 2021 by University Press of Colorado
Published by Utah State University Press
An imprint of University Press of Colorado
245 Century Circle, Suite 202
Louisville, Colorado 80027
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of
the Association of University Presses.
The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State University
, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College,
Metropolitan State University of Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, University of Wyoming, Utah State University, and Western Colorado University.
∞ This paper meets the requirements of the ANSI/NISO Z39.48-
1992 (Permanence of
Paper). ISBN:
978-
1-64642-094-0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-64642-108-4 (ebook)
https:// doi .org/ 10 .7330/ 9781646421084
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: W
alton, Rebecca W., editor. | Agboka, Godwin, 1979–
editor.
Title: Equipping technical communicators for social justice work : theories, methodolo-
gies, and pedagogies / edited by Rebecca Walton, Godwin Y. Agboka.
Description: Logan : Utah State University Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical refer-
ences and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021001137 (print) | LCCN 2021001138 (ebook) | ISBN
9781646420940 (paperback) | ISBN 9781646421084 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Communication of technical information—Social aspects. | Social
justice.
Classification: LCC P96.S645 E65 2020 (print) | LCC P96.S645 (ebook) | DDC
302.23—dc23
LC record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov/ 2021001137
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov/ 2021001138
Cover concept and illustrations by T
ony Walton

We dedicate this book to all of you who strive to engage in socially just
professional practice. Thank you for your commitment to the consistent,
collaborative pursuit of justice in your work. We join you in these
efforts and are honored to labor alongside you.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Beyond Ideology and Theory: Applied Approaches to
Social Justice
Rebecca Walton and Godwin Y. Agboka 3
SECTION I: CENTERING MARGINALITY IN
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
1.
Narr
Technical Communication
Laura Gonzales, Josephine Walwema, Natasha N. Jones,
Han Yu, and Miriam F. Williams 15
2. Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat: An Indigenist Ethics Approach for Working with
Marginalized Knowledges in Technical Communication
Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq 33
3. “I’m surprised that this hasn’t happened before”: An Indigenous
Examination of UXD Failure during the Hawai‘i Missile False Alarm
Emily Legg and Adam Strantz 49
SECTION II: CONDUCTING COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH
4.
Purpose and Participation: Heuristics for Planning, Implementing,
and Reflecting on Social Justice Work
Emma J. Rose and Alison Cardinal 75
5. Visual Participatory Action Research Methods: Presenting Nuanced,
Co-Created Accounts of Public Problems
Erin Brock Carlson 98
6. Legal Resource Mapping as a Methodology for Social Justice
Research and Engagement
Mark A. Hannah, Kristen R. Moore, Nicole Lowman, and Kehinde Alonge
116

viii Contents
SECTION III: TEACHING CRITICAL ANALYSIS
7. Social
Critical Analysis of Online Activism into TPC Curriculum
Kimberly Harper 143
8. The Tarot of Tech: Foretelling the Social Justice Impacts of
Our Designs
Sarah Beth Hopton 158
9. An Intersectional Feminist Rhetorical Pedagogy in the Technical
Communication Classroom
Oriana A. Gilson 178
SECTION IV: TEACHING CRITICAL ADVOCACY
10.
Election Technologies as a Tool for Cultivating Civic Literacies in
Technical Communication: A Case of The Redistricting Game
Fernando Sánchez, Isidore Dorpenyo,
and Jennifer Sano-Franchini 197
11. Plotting an Interstitial Design Process: Design Thinking and Social
Design Processes as Framework for Addressing Social Justice Issues
in TPC Classrooms
Liz Lane 214
12. Kategorias and Apologias as Heuristics for Social Justice Advocacy
Keith Grant-Davie 230
Afterword: Equipping for Action: Suggestions for Using This Book
Rebecca Walton and Godwin Y. Agboka 247
About the Authors 249
Index 253

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REBECCA WALTON
I am grateful to the scholars whose work laid this foundation for this
collection: those of you who were among the first to reject the myth
of neutral technical communication, to reveal our field’s complicity
in oppression, and to call for more socially just practice. We are all
indebted to you. Many, many thanks to my co-
editor Godwin Y. Agboka.
You’ve been an inspiration to me since I read your 2013 TCQ article and heard you present at ATTW in Las Vegas that same year. Working with you has been a secret hope of mine ever since, and it has been an honor to partner with you on this collection. Thank you as well to the brilliant and generous scholars who dedicated your work to this collection. I have learned so much from you and look forward to sharing it with the field. I am also grateful to work with my colleagues, students, staff members, and administrators at Utah State University. How fortunate I am to be part of an academic program that’s explicitly and intentionally focused on social justice! Most important, all my thanks and all my love to Tony Walton and Heidi Wilson. Thank you for listening and talking through ideas, for encouraging me to pursue opportunities, and for supporting me in ways big and small. I wouldn’t be me without you.
GODWIN Y. AGBOKA
There’s so much progressive scholarship currently happening in the field of technical and professional communication, but the idea of a collection that attempts to provide practical roadmaps and tools for enacting social justice in various sites of work was an opportunity that Rebecca and I could not pass up. This, we thought, was an opportunity to add an important piece to much of the healthy theoretical conversa- tions on social justice in our field. Thus, first, I am grateful to all the

x Acknowledgments
scholars in our field who are doing the hard work of identifying sites
of injustice and, more important, doing something tangible about such
forms of injustice through scholarship. Second, special thanks to all the
smart and hardworking scholars whose works are featured in this collec-
tion. I am honestly certain that this collection will make an important
contribution to social justice work in the classroom, the workplace, and
the conduct of research—
and how we report about it. Next, I appreciate
the
support I continue to receive from my institution, the University of
Houston-
Downtown, whose mission, student body, and practices reflect
why it is important to do social justice work. I have been so inspired by the efforts and dedication of my graduate and undergraduate students who enroll in my classes and teach me a lot about justice, oppression, patience, and humility. Also, I could not have asked for a better and smarter scholar and partner to work with on this project. I have learned so much from Rebecca Walton, whom I consider one of the kindest, smartest, and most thoughtful scholar-
teachers in our field. Finally, it
would be remiss of me not to highlight the special support I continue to receive from my daughter, Brooklyn. I do not know how I could make time for all this important work if she did not understand its importance and the pressures on and responsibilities of college professors.

EQUIPPING TECHNICAL
COMMUNICATORS FOR
SOCIAL JUSTICE WORK

Introduction
BEYOND IDEOLOGY AND THEORY
Applied Approaches to Social Justice
Rebecca Walton and Godwin Y. Agboka
DOI: 10.7330/9781646421084.c000
Themes of social justice have appeared in technical and professional
communication (TPC) scholarship for more than two decades (refer
to Blyler 1995; Crabtree 1998; Herndl 1993; Thralls and Blyler 1993;
Sullivan 1990). For example, as far back as 1998, Nancy Blyler charged
TPC to take a “political turn” to center its research and instructional
practices on social action (33). However, it was not until the second
decade of the twenty-
first century that scholars began to explicitly inter-
rogate theories, methodologies, practices, and the institutional and disciplinary challenges of enacting social justice (e.g., Agboka 2013, 2014; Colton and Holmes 2016; Haas 2012; Jones 2016a, 2016b; Jones and Walton 2018; Jones, Moore, and Walton 2016; Leydens and Lucena 2017; Leydens 2014; Walton 2013; Walton, Zraly, and Mugengana 2015; Walton, Moore, and Jones 2019). Williams (2013) describes: “These scholars are taking the traditional description of technical communica- tion as a field that advocates for the user to a new and exciting level by focusing on historically marginalized groups and issues related to race, class, gender, and sexuality
. . .” (87–88). This scholarship has spurred
a “social justice turn” in the field of TPC in which the focus on critical analysis that informed the cultural turn of the 1990s extends into a focus on critical action.
In TPC, social justice research “investigates how communication,
broadly defined, can amplify the agency of oppressed people—
those
who are materially
, socially, politically, and/or economically under-

resourced. Key to this definition is a collaborative, respectful approach that moves past description and exploration of social justice issues to taking action to redress inequities” (
Jones and Walton 2018). Efforts
at social justice recognize the historical, economic, and sociopolitical forces that promote injustices and normalize them; but, more impor-
tantly, such efforts also support and enact systems that magnify the

4 WON AND AGBOKA
agency of oppressed and under-resourced people and communities.
This position is echoed by Haas and Eble (2019), who argue that
social justice approaches are informed by cultural theories and method-
ologies, but they also explicitly seek to redistribute and reassemble—
or
other
wise redress—
power imbalances that systematically and systemically
disenfranchise some stakeholders while privileging others. Using cultural and r
hetorical theories to redress social injustices, social justice approach-
es essentially and ideally couple rhetoric with action to actually make social, institutional, and organizational change toward equity happen (3).
Within TPC, this kind of work is burgeoning, with considerations
of social justice informing conference themes, conference round-
tables, journals’ special issue topics, and award-
winning scholarship.
For example, the 2016–2019 conferences organized by the Association
of T
eachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) have featured roundtables
or panels on the subject of social justice. It is particularly noteworthy that in 2018, the ATTW conference organizers instituted up to three awards to recognize and amplify the important contributions of under-
represented students and/or non-
tenure track faculty presenting at
A
TTW 2018 in Kansas City, Kansas. Social justice scholarship in TPC
has explored, among many other topics, the complexities of navigat- ing and engaging unenfranchised contexts (Agboka 2013, 2014; Durá, Singhal, and Elias 2013; Walton, Price, and Zraly 2013; Walton, Zraly, and Mugengana 2015); issues of race and programmatic diversity (Jones 2014; Jones, Savage, and Yu 2014; Savage and Mattson 2011; Savage and Matveeva 2011); the interstices of gender, sexuality, rhetoric, and tech- nical communication (Cox and Faris 2015; Frost 2015; Petersen 2014); and considerations of translation and localization (Gonzales and Turner 2017; Rose and Racadio 2017; Shivers-
McNair and San Diego 2017). The
implication is that TPC is a field actively engaged in decolonial, advo
-
cacy, and civic work.
While we are excited by this important and necessary scholarship, we
are concerned that relatively few resources are available within the field to directly support and inform it. In other words, despite a wave of social justice scholarship in the field, a number of TPC scholars—
both emerg-
ing and established—have limited understanding of social justice or feel
ill equipped to pursue it in their work, wondering, “How do I incorpo- rate social justice into my technical communication courses? How can I uphold principles of social justice in my research? What theories are well suited to framing and informing socially just TPC? How could con- siderations of social justice inform practices of, say, user experience or crisis communication?”

Introduction: Beyond Ideology and Theory 5
To address these types of questions, this collection provides action-
focused resources and tools (e.g., heuristics, methodologies, and theo-
ries) for scholars to enact social justice. These resources are intended to
support the work of scholars and practitioners in conducting research
or pursuing both local and international projects in socially just ways.
Each chapter in the collection identifies a tool, highlights its relevance
to technical communication, and explicates how and why it can prepare
technical communication scholars for socially just work. The form and
purpose of this collection were inspired by some of the foundational
works in our field that draw from cultural studies and social justice.
Indeed, we situate our work in—
and build on the legacies of—these
works
that predate ours, which themselves began and shaped important
conversations on what has become the “social justice turn” in TPC. For example, Critical Power Tools: Technical Communication and Cultural Studies,
edited by Blake Scott, Bernadette Longo, and Katherine Wills (2006), helped us recognize our field’s complicity in oppression. Although scholarship on cultural studies sparsely peppered the field prior to their collection, Critical Power Tools provided the field with a collection
of essays that inspired what has been called the “cultural turn” in TPC that, we believe, was necessary to precede and lay the groundwork for the social justice turn. Critical Power Tools explicitly embraced critical perspectives that rejected solely instrumentalist identities for technical communication. Similar to our vision for this collection, Critical Power Tools equips communicators for critical action by taking up and address- ing questions about how viewing technical communication pedagogy, research methods, and theoretical concepts through a cultural studies lens can enhance the work of TPC scholars and students. Published just a few years prior, Power and Legitimacy in Technical Communication, Volume II, edited by Teresa Kynell-
Hunt and Gerald Savage (2004),
offered strategies for changing agendas across technical communica- tion. It envisioned a future in line with the social justice turn of the field—
a future in which technical communicators focus their work on
the public good (Rude, chapter 7), conduct grassroots-directed research
that
informs people’s efforts to improve their own lives (Blyler, chapter
8), occupy rhetorical roles that focus on social change and boundary crossing (Savage, chapter 9), and refuse to accept or perpetuate myths of technology as panacea (Killingsworth, chapter 10). These big-
picture
perspectives of the field’
s future set the stage for the present moment in
which we write this collection; a present in which many within our field embrace the social justice turn and are seeking tools useful for taking up this work in their own day-
to-day practice of teaching and research.

6 WON AND AGBOKA
Many of the arguments introduced by these earlier texts have been
taken up, extended, and addressed more directly by more recent schol-
arship, some of which connects explicitly to social justice objectives.
Communicating Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in Technical Communication,
edited by Miriam Williams and Octavio Pimentel (2014), focuses and
extends discussion of diversity to include how race and ethnicity shape
the practice and production of technical communication, mostly within
the United States. Their collection (an extension of their 2012 special
issue of the Journal of Business and Technical Communication) reveals how
technical communication can be directly or indirectly complicit in
activities that further marginalize historically disenfranchised groups,
while also suggesting ways of magnifying the agency of those groups.
Their book lays important groundwork by prompting and presenting
critical analyses, which the current collection aims to extend by equip-
ping readers for critical action.
Whereas Williams and Pimentel’s collection focuses on race and
ethnicity, Godwin Y. Agboka and Natalia Matveeva’s (2018) collection,
Citizenship and Advocacy in Technical Communication: Scholarly and Peda

gogical Perspectives, addresses civic engagement and advocacy. Addressing
both pedagogy and industry practice, the collection prepares teachers and practitioners to undertake advocacy work in local and international contexts. In furtherance of these goals, the collection defines core competencies for advocacy work, provides practical examples and strate- gies for advocacy involving clients, and conveys teaching strategies for bringing advocacy into the classroom. This book seeks to extend the contributions of the Agboka and Matveeva collection beyond citizenship and advocacy by presenting tools for inclusive community research and teaching across a range of contexts.
A major inspiration for this collection is Key Theoretical Frameworks:
Teaching Technical Communication in the Twenty-
First Century, edited by
Angela Haas and Michelle Eble (2018). The Eble and Haas collection focuses on ways in which social justice can inform disciplinary, program- matic, and pedagogical practices in TPC. Calling technical communica- tors to “make social, institutional, and organizational change toward equity” (4–
5), their collection is one of the most distinct and direct in its
discussion of social justice. Their collection equips TPC teachers to pre
-
pare the next generation of practitioners using a range of methodologi- cal, theoretical, and pedagogical approaches—a goal we share in this
collection and extend into collaborative research as well as pedagogy
.
Building upon the important work of previous edited collections
in the field, this book seeks to explicitly equip readers, and chapters

Introduction: Beyond Ideology and Theory 7
often address readers directly, providing guidance, cautions, and sug-
gestions for readers who are preparing to use these tools in their own
work. There are twelve chapters in this collection, organized into four
parts: (i) Centering Marginality in Professional Practice, (ii) Conducting
Collaborative Research, (iii) Teaching Critical Analysis, and (iv) Teaching
Critical Advocacy.
In Centering Marginality in Professional Practice, chapters interro-
gate the concept of inclusivity and how to enact it in our day-
to-day pro-
fessional practice. Chapters 1–3 provoke questions about who we are as
a field, how we operate as professionals, and how to enact inclusivity in our work. Chapter 1, “Narratives from the Margins: Centering W
omen
of Color in Technical Communication,” shares critical perspectives on how women of color (WOC) in TPC studies navigate structural inequal- ity, including but not limited to microaggressions, in their everyday work. Authored by five WOC, Laura Gonzales (University of Florida), Josephine Walwema (University of Washington Seattle), Natasha N. Jones (Michigan State University), Han Yu (Kansas State University), and Miriam F. Williams (Texas State University), the chapter draws on narra- tives from the lived experiences of these WOC and shares strategies for WOC in TPC who also experience marginalization. Finally, the authors provide specific “actions that white accomplices can take toward more equitable, inclusive, and socially just practice within and beyond TPC.” In chapter 2, Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq (Utah State University) argues that using locally situated value systems as lenses for shifting one’s para- digm from an ethnocentristic, dominant-
cultural perspective towards
a
perspective that is established from within marginalized communi-
ties is crucial for decolonial methodologies. In “Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat: An Indigenist Ethics Approach for Working with Marginalized Knowledges in Technical Communication,” Itchuaqiyaq explores the ethical pos- sibilities of engaging with marginalized communities in TPC practice, research, and scholarship by offering Indigenous virtue ethics as a tool, cautioning that “those who wish to develop ‘Indigenist’ research paradigms need a framework that challenges default dominant-
culture
perspectives.” W
rapping up this section is chapter 3, “
‘I’m surprised
that this hasn’
t happened before’: An Indigenous Examination of UXD
Failure During the Hawai’i Missile False Alarm,” by Emily Legg (Miami University) and Adam Strantz (Miami University). Their chapter uses the Hawai’i false missile launch alarm as a case study to demonstrate how user experience design (UXD) approaches can be complicit in oppressive and colonizing attitudes and structures. While acknowledg- ing the role of a poorly designed interface in the missile launch, they

8 WON AND AGBOKA
draw attention to how designers ignored the historic and sociocultural
contexts of the crisis and the fears of the Hawai’ian people by focusing
on surface-
level UXD issues. In response, Legg and Strantz argue that
UXD must attune itself to local community expertise, especially local communities of underrepresented people. T
o equip readers for this
inclusive work, they introduce an Indigenous framework for UXD that gives designers a praxis-oriented tool to decolonize UXD and to re-
center their UXD on inclusivity.
The second section, Conducting Collaborative Research, highlights
socially just research methodologies for conducting, designing, and engaging in collaborative research with communities beyond the academy. Leading the section is chapter 4, “Purpose and Participation: Heuristics for Planning, Implementing, and Reflecting on Social Justice Work,” by Emma J. Rose (University of Washington Tacoma) and Alison Cardinal (University of Washington Tacoma). Chapter 4 discusses the relevance of heuristics in enacting social justice in on-
the-ground
research activities. The authors have developed a tool that is made up of two linked heuristics—
(i) pragmatism, advocacy, and activism
and (ii) participation—that can be directly applied to social justice in
TPC work. Rose and Cardinal demonstrate how the tool can be used and discuss associated cautions by sharing a case study of using design ethnography to engage with transit-
dependent communities. The next
chapter in this section, “Visual Participatory Action Research Methods: Presenting Nuanced, Co-
created Accounts of Public Problems,” is writ-
ten by Erin Brock Carlson (West Virginia University). This chapter introduces visual participatory action research (PAR) and its associated methods, participant-
generated imagery (PGI) and participatory map-
ping, as tools for community-based research inquiry. Brock Carlson
explains that, while PGI methods ask participants to take and reflect upon photographs over the course of a project, participatory map- ping invites participants to create or amend already-
existing visuals.
To illustrate, she discusses a study with community organizers using both of these methods. The final chapter in this section is “Legal Resource Mapping as a Methodology for Social Justice Research and Engagement” by Mark A. Hannah (Arizona State University), Kristen R. Moore (University at Buffalo), Nicole Lowman (University at Buffalo), and Kehinde Alonge (Rutgers University). Chapter 6 introduces legal resource mapping (LRM) as a methodology for engaging citizens and collecting research about policy-
driven problems in TPC. To help read-
ers understand the relevance of LRM, they illustrate its use with a case study of the Citizen Police Oversight Agency in Albuquerque, NM, as

Introduction: Beyond Ideology and Theory 9
well as describing a workshop on LRM that can be replicated by readers
in other contexts.
The chapters in section three, Teaching Critical Analysis, stimulate
our intellectual capacity to apply critical analysis in pedagogical con-
texts and activities. Leading the section is chapter 7: “Social Activism
in 280 Characters or Less: How to Incorporate Critical Analysis of
Online Activism into TPC Curriculum” by Kimberly Harper (North
Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University). Chapter 7 dis-
cusses how to equip students for critical practice by designing assign-
ments and activities that scaffold students in analyzing online activism.
Harper reports how she approached this goal through specific cur-
ricular choices in a course titled “Technical Communication in the
Age of #BlackLivesMatter,” providing tips and cautions for readers
interested in teaching courses with similar goals. Chapter 8 is “The
Tarot of Tech: Foretelling the Social Justice Impacts of Our Designs”
by Sarah Beth Hopton (Appalachian State University). This chapter
uses examples at the intersection of technical communication, agri-
culture, and social justice to illustrate the usefulness of the design
resource she presents to readers: a card deck called the Tarot of Tech.
Hopton explains, “my farm serves as a site of praxis where students and
I attempt design solutions to some of the more ‘wicked’ problems
. . .
at the intersection of sustainability, social justice, and technology.” Hopton describes how readers can use the Tarot of Tech cards in their own classes to generate more justice-
focused envisioning of possible
design solutions to a range of wicked problems. The last chapter in this section is “An Intersectional Feminist Rhetorical Pedagogy in the Technical Communication Classroom” by Oriana A. Gilson (Illinois State University). This chapter highlights the promise of an intersec- tional feminist rhetorical pedagogy to shift students’ view of TPC from one focused solely on efficiency and consistency to one both invested in and working toward socially just practices. Focusing on usability as a cardinal competency in TPC programs, she demonstrates how students’ interactions with users and user testing, when motivated by social jus- tice objectives, can be an important platform to counteract the ethic of expediency and instead focus on increased user involvement and the elevation of users’ status as co-
creators of knowledge.
The final section, T
eaching Critical Advocacy, demonstrates how
pedagogical tools can be used to inspire critical action toward advo- cacy. The leading chapter in this section is “Election Technologies as a Tool for Cultivating Civic Literacies in Technical Communication: A Case of The Redistricting Game” written by Fernando Sánchez (University

10 WON AND AGBOKA
of St. Thomas), Jennifer Sano-Franchini (Virginia Tech), and Isidore
Dorpenyo (George Mason University). Chapter 10 presents election
technologies as a promising topic for integrating considerations of
social justice into technical communication courses. To crystallize
this recommendation, they describe an example course unit using
The Redistricting Game, a browser game developed by the University of
Southern California Game Innovation Lab that provides a basic intro-
duction to the redistricting system. This unit was incorporated into an
undergraduate general education writing course on spatial rhetorics as
a way of using the election technology of electoral maps and geographic
information systems (GIS) to teach students about the politics of space
and spatial representations. Chapter 11 is “Plotting an Interstitial Design
Process: Design Thinking and Social Design Processes as Framework
for Addressing Social Justice Issues in TPC Classrooms” by Liz Lane
(University of Memphis). This chapter uses the interdisciplinary con-
cept of interstitiality (or interstitial design) as a tool for “questioning
power structures, inequalities, and user benefits of designed materi-
als.” Lane demonstrates how she uses an interstitial design process in
teaching TPC genres usually common to many introductory technical
communication courses such as white papers and recommendation
reports. Concluding this section is chapter 12: “Kategorias and apologias
as Heuristics for Social Justice Advocacy” by Keith Grant-
Davie (Utah
State University). This chapter presents kategoria and apologia—the
rhetoric of denunciation and defense—as useful tactics for building
arguments for change and to anticipate arguments against change. He
describes how to develop kategorias (arguments denouncing a harmful act or situation), mapping them to the relevant apologias (arguments defending against kategorias) to demonstrate how to develop social jus- tice arguments. He uses an extended example to illustrate each of these rhetorical moves, ending the chapter with example classroom activities and discussions to equip readers to incorporate kategoria and apologia into their own classes.
Taken together, these twelve chapters present readers with a road-
map for the research, teaching, and practice of TPC, and the collection serves as an invitation to others in the field to enact social justice in their various sites of work. Further, the authors collectively demonstrate that social justice approaches to TPC are practical and applied—
not
merely theoretical or ideological stances. In demonstrating this point, this collection articulates the strengths of socially just TPC practices and continues the field along a social justice trajector
y.

Introduction: Beyond Ideology and Theory 11
REFERENCES
Agboka, Godwin Y. 2013. “Participatory Localization: A Social Justice Approach to Navigat-
ing Unenfranchised/Disenfranchised Cultural Sites.” Technical Communication Quarterly
22 (1): 28–49.
Agboka, Godwin Y
. 2014. “Decolonial Methodologies: Social Justice Perspectives in Inter-
cultural Technical Communication Research.” Journal of Technical Writing and Commu- nication 44 (3): 297–327.
Agboka, Godwin Y
., and Natalia Matveeva. 2018. Citizenship and Advocacy in Technical Com-
munication: Scholarly and Pedagogical Perspectives. New York: Routledge.
Blyler, Nancy. 1995. “Research as Ideology in Professional Communication.” Technical Com-
munication Quarterly 4 (3): 285–
313.
Blyler
, Nancy. 1998. “Taking a Political Turn: The Critical Perspective and Research in
Professional Communication.” Technical Communication Quarterly 7 (1): 33–
52.
Colton, Jared S., and Steve Holmes. 2016. “A Social Justice Theor
y of Active Equality for
Technical Communication.” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 48 (1): 4–
10.
Cox, Matthew B., and Michael J. Faris. 2015. “An Annotated Bibliography of LGBTQ
Rhetorics.” Pr
esent Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society 4 (2): 1–
161.
Crabtree, Robbin D. 1998. “Mutual Empowerment in Cross-Cultural Participatory Develop-
ment and Service Learning: Lessons in Communication and Social Justice from Projects in El Salvador and Nicaragua.” Journal of Applied Communication Research 26 (2): 182–
209.
Durá, Lucía, Aravind Singhal, and Eliana E. Elías. 2013. “Minga Peru’
s Strategy for Social
Change in the Peruvian Amazon: A Rhetorical Model for Participatory, Intercultural Practice to Advance Human Rights.” Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication and Globalization 4 (1): 33–
54.
Frost, Erin. 2015. “Apparent Feminist Pedagogies: Embodying Feminist Pedagogical Prac
-
tices at East Carolina University.” Programmatic Perspectives 7 (2): 251–
276.
Gonzales, Laura, and Heather T
urner. 2017. “Converging Fields, Expanding Outcomes:
Technical Communication, Translation, and Design at a Non-
Profit Organization.”
T
echnical Communication 64 (2): 126–
140.
Haas, Angela M. 2012. “Race, Rhetoric, and T
echnology: A Case Study of Decolonial Tech-
nical Communication Theory, Methodology, and Pedagogy.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication 26 (3): 277–310.
Haas, Angela, and Michelle Eble, eds. 2018. Key Theoretical Frameworks: Teaching Technical
Communication in the Twenty-First Century. Logan: Utah State University Press.
Herndl, Carl G. 1993. “Teaching Discourse and Reproducing Culture: A Critique of
Research Pedagogy in Professional and Non-Academic Writing.” College Composition and
Communication 44: 249–263.
Jones,
Natasha N. 2014. “The Importance of Ethnographic Research in Activist Networks.”
In Communicating Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in Technical Communication, edited by
Miriam F. Williams and Octavio Pimentel, 46–
61. Amityville, NY: Baywood Press.
Jones, Natasha N. 2016a. “Narrative Inquiry in Human-Centered Design: Examining
Silence and V
oice to Promote Social Justice in Design Scenarios.” Journal of Technical
Writing and Communication 46 (4): 471–
492.
Jones,
Natasha N. 2016b. “The Technical Communicator as Advocate: Integrating a Social
Justice Approach in Technical Communication.” Journal of Technical Writing and Com-
munication 46 (3): 342–
361.
Jones, Natasha N., Kristen R. Moore, and Rebecca W
alton. 2016. “Disrupting the Past to
Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Communication.” Technical Commu- nication Quarterly 25 (4): 1–19.
Jones, Natasha N., Gerald Savage, and Han Y
u. 2014. “Tracking Our Progress: Diversity
in Technical and Professional Communication Programs.” Programmatic Perspectives 6 (1): 132–152.

12 WON AND AGBOKA
Jones, Natasha N., and Rebecca Walton. 2018. “Using Narratives to Foster Critical Think-
ing about Diversity and Social Justice.” In Key Theoretical Frameworks: Teaching Technical
Communication in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Angela M. Hass and Michelle F.
Eble, 241–267. Logan: Utah State University Press.
Kynell-Hunt, Teresa, and Gerald J. Savage, eds. 2004. Power and Legitimacy in Technical Com-
munication, Vol. II: Strategies for Professional Status. Amityville, NY: Baywood Press.
Leydens, Jon A. 2014. Sociotechnical Communication in Engineering. London: Routledge. Leydens, Jon A., and Juan C. Lucena. 2017. Engineering Justice: Transforming Engineering
Education and Practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Petersen, Emily J. 2014. “Redefining the Workplace: The Professionalization of Moth-
erhood through Blogging.” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 44 (3): 277–
296.
Rose, Emma J., and Robert Racadio. 2017. “Testing in Translation: Conducting Usability
Studies with Transnational Users.” Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization 10 (1): 5–
26.
Savage, Gerald, and Kyle Mattson. 2011. “Perceptions of Racial and Ethnic Diversity in
T
echnical Communication Programs.” Programmatic Perspectives 3 (1): 5–
57.
Savage, Gerald, and Natalia Matveeva. 2011. “T
oward Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Tech-
nical Communication Programs: A Study of Technical Communication in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Tribal Colleges and Universities in the United States.” Programmatic Perspectives 3 (1): 58–
85.
Scott, J. Blake, Bernadette Longo, and Katherine V
. Wills, eds.
2006. Critical Power Tools:
Technical Communication and Cultural Studies. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Shivers-McNair, Ann, and Clarissa San Diego. 2017. “Localizing Communities, Goals,
Communication, and Inclusion: A Collaborative Approach.” Technical Communication 64 (2): 97–
112.
Sullivan,
Dale L. 1990. “Political-
Ethical Implications of Defining Technical Communica-
tion as Practice.” Journal of Advanced Composition 10: 375–386.
Thralls, Charlotte, and Nancy R. Blyler
. 1993. “The Social Perspective and Pedagogy in
Technical Communication.” Technical Communication Quarterly 2 (3): 249–
270.
W
alton, Rebecca. 2013. “Civic Engagement, Information Technology, and Global Con-
texts.” Connexions: An International Professional Communication Journal 1 (1): 147–
154.
W
alton, Rebecca, Kristen R. Moore, and Natasha N. Jones. 2019. Technical Communication
after the Social Justice Turn: Building Coalitions for Action. New York: Routledge.
Walton, Rebecca, Ryan Price, and Maggie Zraly. 2013. “Rhetorically Navigating Rwandan
Research Review: A Fantasy Theme Analysis.” Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communica- tion and Globalization 4 (1): 78–102.
W
alton, Rebecca, Maggie Zraly, and Jean Pierre Mugengana. 2015. “Values and Validity:
Navigating Messiness in a Community-
Based Research Project in Rwanda.” Technical
Communication Quarterly 24(1): 45–69.
Williams, Miriam F
. 2013. “A Survey of Emerging Research: Debunking the Fallacy of Col-
orblind Technical Communication.” Programmatic Perspectives 5 (1): 86–
93.
Williams, Miriam F
., and Octavio Pimentel, eds.
2014. Communicating Race, Ethnicity, and
Identity in Technical Communication. New York: Routledge.

SECTION I
Centering Marginality in Professional Practice

1
NARRATIVES FROM THE MARGINS
Centering Women of Color in Technical Communication
Laura Gonzales, Josephine Walwema,
Natasha N. Jones, Han Yu, and Miriam F. Williams
DOI: 10.7330/9781646421084.c001
INTRODUCTION
In Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in
Academia, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen
G. González, and Angela P. Harris (2012), as well as their contributors,
make clear that the inequities and injustices that transpire outside of
academia in American society penetrate and permeate the ivory tower.
Although those who benefit most from these inequities often tell narra-
tives of meritocracy, academia is an institution that sponsors and system-
atically upholds white patriarchal and classist privilege. The same holds
true for our colleges, departments, and programs, including within
the field of technical communication, and especially in predominantly
white institutions (PWIs).
Symptoms of structural inequalities include microaggressions. In
the 1970s, Chester Pierce coined the term microaggressions to refer
to the “everyday subtle and often automatic ‘put-
downs’ and insults
directed toward Black Americans” (Sue 2010, 5). Today, this concept has been taken up by other racial minorities and oppressed communi- ties to describe commonplace rhetoric and action—
intentional and
unintentional—that insults, harms, or otherwise adversely targets that
community or a person from that community. More specifically, Pierce explains, microaggressions are “verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities
. . . that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial,
gender, sexual-orientation, and religious slights and insults to the target
person or group” (quoted in Sue 2010, 5).
Because microaggressions
are, by definition, micro, their occur-
rences often go uncensored and unaddressed (though we acknowledge that there is nothing small or unimportant about these aggressions). Moreover, it can be difficult for those (micro)aggressed to report it lest

16 GO NZALES, WALWEMA, JONES, YU, AND WILLIAMS
they sound sensitive or petty. Unlike an obvious racial slur, an ostensible
act of hate and discrimination, microaggressions are allowed to exist
on our campuses and in our disciplinary communities (online and
face-
to-face) because too many white “allies” are unwilling to put their
privilege on the line and stand up to microaggressors. Or
, worse yet,
our “allies” are the very individuals leveling microaggressions against us. The damages microaggressions have on their targets are real. They accumulate day after day, year after year (and we keep and share receipts and #neverforget).
Common microaggressions against women of color (WOC) in aca-
demia include persistent surveillance, assessment, and disciplining of our bodies based upon colonial rubrics of competence, civility, schol- arship, professionalism—
and indignation when we don’t perform ste-
reotypical roles of collegiality and/or our race(s) prescribed by white patriarchy. These play out at the office, in meetings, at conferences, and on social media. For example, data presented in Gutiérrez y Muhs et
al. (2012) evidence that WOC in academia experience a presumption
of incompetence by students, colleagues, and administrators that white academics don’t. At the same time, given the perception that we are more motherly and nurturing, we are expected to do more emotional (and diversity) labor for students and colleagues—
sometimes beyond
our discipline
and institutions. And if we act “too intellectual”—
rather
than a mascot, mother
, or cheerleader—
we risk being perceived as a
threat, too elitist, an assimilationist, and a sellout.
This chapter seeks to illustrate how WOC in the discipline of techni
-
cal communication (TC) studies navigate structural inequality, includ- ing but not limited to microaggressions, in our everyday work. This chapter is the first of its kind in the discipline in that it brings together the authorial voices of five WOC technical communicators across faculty ranks and at different institutions to provide narratives and correspond- ing strategies and tactics for working toward social justice in and beyond our discipline. Drawing on narratives from our lived experiences as WOC in TC, we share tactics for WOC in TC who also experience marginal- ization. We also provide actions that white accomplices—
people who
consistently
leverage their privilege to stand up for, support, and amplify
marginalized communities without guaranteed recognition—
can take
toward more equitable, inclusive, and socially just practice within and beyond TC. Furthermore, we demonstrate how narrative as a disciplin
-
ary tool has different cultural usability considerations for different users. Specifically, the perspectives we suggest should be critically taken up depending upon the positionality of the user. Toward these ends, after

Narratives from the Margins 17
sharing stories of navigating academia as WOC, we offer two tables as
supplemental tools for imagining more socially just futures for WOC
and our accomplices in TC studies.
STORIES AS TOOLS OF INQUIRY
Our collaborative work centers our narrative experiences, ways of
learning, knowing, and engaging in the field. Our stories are our data,
our tools, and our strategies for surviving, transgressing, and thriving
as WOC technical communicators. Stories help us build community
while honoring the communities that we come from. In her technical
descriptions of three of the seventeen Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat, or Indigenous
virtue ethics of the Iñupiat of NW Alaska, which are collaboratively
developed and codified (and, in part, exemplified) via oral tradition,
Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq, in chapter 2 of this collection, demonstrates
story as community-
based and embodied methodology for making and
praxis. In addition to sustaining and building knowledge within commu- nities, story can also help us to imagine and assemble new communities and alliances. As Gutiérrez y Muhs et
al. explain, “personal stories may
bridge the epistemological gap that frequently appears between the lives of people with a particular privilege and those who lack that privi- lege” (2012, 3). Grounded in our histories and narratives, the stories we present in this chapter collectively: (1) testify, affirm, and bear witness to the survival, resistance, and alliance-
building tactics of WOC in TC;
(2) direct different users to different uptakes of our narratives; (3) call for inclusive research, scholarly, and rhetorical practices that centralize, rather than marginalize, WOC experiences in and beyond our scholarly discipline and professional fields.
Our stories demonstrate that individual and collective experiences
of WOC in TC are critical repositories of intersectional embodied knowledges (Crenshaw 1989), knowledges passed down by our Elders and ancestors (Itchuaqiyaq, chapter 2 in this collection), which we’ve learned directly and then shared with each other toward intentional coalition building. Narratives stemming from embodied knowledge are useful for learning from diverse users and contributors to our discipline and redressing injustices in and with technical communication. As such, our stories both reflect and contribute to the long, rich histori- cal commitment of Black womanist thought, transnational feminisms, Indigenous feminisms, Asian/Asian-
American feminisms, and Chicanx
feminisms to narrative inquir
y as a methodology for knowledge produc-
tion, survival, resistance, and coalition-
building vis-a-vis testimony.

18 GO NZALES, WALWEMA, JONES, YU, AND WILLIAMS
Further, we extend the advocacy of incorporating narrative in TC
scholarship and practice as a means for promoting intercultural compe-
tences (Yu and Savage 2013) and socially just design (Jones 2016) toward
a means for promoting coalition-
building across WOC and others in TC.
For readers who are WOC, we hope to demonstrate the power of narra- tives of WOC with and for other WOC. For other readers, we ask that you listen and learn from the narratives, moving toward more accountable praxis of allyship (toward accomplice-
ship) rather than rushing to relate
with or to analyze our stories. After we share our stories, we provide tables that attempt to orient our discipline toward these outcomes.
It’s important to note that although we label our stories with our
names, our stories are intertwined with one another. These stories are also grounded in mentorship we have received from other WOC who are not represented in this chapter. In particular, as we share our sto- ries, we thank our mentor, friend, and fierce WOC advocate, Dr.
Angela
Haas, for helping us develop and gather the courage to share these sto- ries in this venue. Most importantly, we thank Angela for listening and welcoming us to share in her own stories. We are all connected.
MIRIAM
“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It
keeps you from doing your work.”
—
Toni Morrison (1975)
I learned to resist microaggressions from my dad, who when just two
years from retirement as a postal carrier, found a brilliant solution to
dealing with his new, seemingly well-intentioned, racist supervisor. My
dad was well acquainted with racism growing up in the 1920s and 1930s in Louisiana, during World War
II in the United States and Italy, and
while delivering mail from the 1950s to 1980s in predominantly white neighborhoods in Houston, Texas. For dad and mom, it was a point of pride that mom, college educated at a historically Black college in the 1940s, had the privilege of working in her own home, rather than facing racism in white workplaces.
Like many postal carriers, despite bad knees and joint pain, dad
delivered mail in Houston’s heavy rain and heatwaves. He saved sick leave because he knew he’d need it one day, and this garnered the respect of his colleagues. Two years from retirement, I think he thought he was safe. So, how did this respected postal carrier respond to his new supervisor’s slights and racist statements? After confronting him didn’t prove successful, mom and dad visited their African-
American

Narratives from the Margins 19
family physician. When the group’s conversation turned to the pester-
ing supervisor, who was so good at hiding his hands, the three decided
that dad probably had enough sick leave (about two years) to last until
his thirty-
five-year retirement. So, they decided he’d take it. The very
next time his supervisor approached him with his racist questions and remarks, dad handed him medical documentation and approval for two years of sick leave (with full pay) followed immediately by retirement.
When I was born, my dad was fifty and my mom was forty-
three. My
oldest
sister was attending a historically Black college—
a space that,
according to Kimberly Harper in chapter 7 of this collection, still serves as a safe space for Black students—
and my oldest brother was struggling
to find safety in Vietnam. So, I was taught by parents and siblings of gen
-
erations where microaggressions were seldom well meaning and there was nothing micro about attacking a Black person’s pride or integrity. And because I find the practice so destructive to the human spirit, I have yet to develop the patience to both recover from the distraction AND take on the burden of making the event a teachable moment for those distracting me. Still, here are some strategies I use when dealing with microaggressions, which are so common that I can’t recall most of them, but all pale in comparison to the stories my parents told. For the sake of clarity, I’ll call these: consult, confirm, document, and report.
Consult: When I want immediate feedback from a group, I group
message my sisters and adult nieces a description of the perceived microaggression. Their responses range from informative to hilarious, including gifs and memes; hilarious helps the most.
Confirm: If I can, in the moment, I ask the offender to repeat what
they said. In the past, this simple question has led some to adjust their statement or try to explain it away. If so, the corrective action, acknowl- edgement, has already begun. If they confirm the inappropriate state- ment or action without apology, then you can move to the next step.
Document: Write it down. I’ve written emails to self for documenta-
tion of what was said or done, date of incident, and offense. If you find the person is repeatedly distracting you with these interactions, you may need to report them. If you decide that reporting the activity isn’t worth the effort, the very act of documenting the perceived harm can be helpful.
Report: There’s no reason for you to keep these exchanges
secret. Either share with other trusted colleagues or, if it’s recurring, report formally.
While few of us can retire to avoid microaggressions, we must identify
thresholds, self-
protective measures, and, if necessary, exit plans.

20 GO NZALES, WALWEMA, JONES, YU, AND WILLIAMS
HAN
My given name, Han, has a symbolic meaning in Chinese. It means long-
lasting, deep-running water. It symbolizes grace, inclusion, and forgive-
ness. But the name gets me into trouble. It is people’s first impression of
me, people who have never met me, let alone known me. On the basis
of this foreign name, they assume and judge my ability.
In my first year as a newly minted assistant professor, fully in charge of
my own classes and curricula, I enthusiastically practiced the pedagogi-
cal theories I had learned in graduate school. For my undergraduate
service class with the hospitality major, I made it a point to visit with the
program director, to get his perspectives on what kinds of workplace and
business writing his students need and how I may teach the class to best
benefit the students.
I scheduled a meeting with the director, Patrick, over email. He was
happy to oblige, and I went over. The meeting was professional enough.
All those details of what I asked and what he said I no longer remember.
But a decade later, I distinctly recall one of his first comments. “We don’t
have much diversity in our program,” he said, nonchalantly. “I think
Courtney is diverse, but you can’t tell from the way she speaks. She’s
assimilated,” he said, approvingly.
In that moment, I knew he could tell I am diverse and not
assimi
lated—by the way my name looks and sounds, by the way I look and
sound. And I knew what else he was thinking: I’m hired to teach students like me, students who are foreign, different, and less competent; by our shared otherness and assumed incompetence, we will better understand each other. I didn’t say anything. I let the comment slide. It is easier to be roused and fight blatant aggression than insidious microaggression. The younger me did not have the language or attitude to cope. Deep down, I also knew that if I tried to fight every microaggression I encountered, I would be utterly exhausted and defeated by my own emotions.
To the younger me and WOC like her, today’s me would say “do not
fight microaggressors, expose their microaggression for what it is”—
to
create a crisis and discomfort the comfortable, as Grant-Davie would
say (refer to chapter 12 in this collection). T
oday’s me would have a
response to the director’s comment, “That’s too bad that you don’t have a lot of diversity in your program. Are you concerned about that at all? Are you looking for strategies to recruit diverse students?” And I would sit and watch his face.
Depending on the larger institutional context, the circumstances of a
microaggression, and the positionality of an individual WOC, this kind of response may not always be comfortable, feasible, or safe. In that

Narratives from the Margins 21
case, I would practice self-care by establishing accomplices and expose
microaggression by cultivating accomplices.
In that same first year as an assistant professor
, I was also charged to
teach a graduate class in TC. For that class, I wanted to invite industry
professionals to come and talk to my students about what it means to
practice technical communication. I was connected with an English
Department alumna, let’s call her Carol, who had graduated with an
MA and gone on to be a technical communicator. What a wonderful fit!
I emailed Carol, inviting her to be a guest speaker. I also asked her
to invite any colleague of hers who might be interested. Two days later,
I received a response. Carol agreed to come and was looking forward
to it. She also contacted a colleague in her company, but alas, the col-
league couldn’t make it. I was happy to just have Carol. I glanced at the
email trail leading up to Carol’s reply to me, and I could see she did
forward my invite to her colleague and they had a brief back-
and-forth
about it. That’s when I saw it. In their back and forth, Carol wrote to her colleague, “They shouldn’t have a foreigner teach this class. This needs to be a person who is not only bilingual but bi-
cultural and bi-rhetoric.”
. . . .
Carol did come, and the visit went fine. I didn’t confront her or insinu- ate my knowledge of her email oops. The moment had passed, and I was counting on her favor for the benefits (in the narrow sense at least) of my students. Afterwards, the younger me did mention the incident to my mentor in the department (whom I consider a friend and accomplice), and together, we sneered at Carol’s inappropriateness and the larger social justice problem in our institution and state. The very act of shar-
ing felt good.
Today’s me would do more. Today’s me would not just mention the
incident to one mentor and friend, today’s me would make it a point to talk about it to any accomplices I have or even to any relevant people who care to listen. The act of sharing and the conversations that ensue would allow me to cultivate more accomplices or know who are not one of them.
NATASHA AND JOSIE
Mentoring is fundamental in order for WOC to survive, resist, and thrive in academic spaces that privilege white, heteronormative, patriarchal ways of learning, knowing, and existing. We—
Josie and Natasha—have
been fortunate to find mentors that support us, use their cultural and

22 GO NZALES, WALWEMA, JONES, YU, AND WILLIAMS
social capital to advocate for us, and guide us through both personal
and professional decisions. However, for many WOC in academia, find-
ing mentors who are true accomplices and determined to work toward
genuine inclusivity in our academic spaces and places can be difficult. In
fact, we faltered quite a bit before we found mentors who were particu-
larly attuned to our realities as WOC, and in particular, as Black women
in TC, a predominantly white field of study.
Natasha
I was lucky enough to find my forever mentor, Dr.
Miriam F. Williams
(included in this chapter), while I was a graduate student. As I reflect on the beginnings of my academic career
, I understand that I was for-
tunate to have faculty and advisors that supported me and pushed me to engage with the scholarly conversations in technical and professional communication in new and inventive ways. However, it wasn’t until I found Miriam that I had a mentor who looked like me and experienced the world, and more importantly, our academic field, in similar ways as I did. Because of Miriam’s guidance, I learned a lot about what mentor-
ship should like look for WOC, and for me as a Black woman.
Admittedly, at one point in my career, the list of folks that I considered
mentors was quite a bit longer. Now, because I’ve had some experiences that demonstrated to me that I must be more selective and discriminating about who I consider a mentor, that list has shortened, but also strength- ened. Here’s the thing: There are always folks at the ready to offer them- selves as a mentor and represent themselves as an ally to WOC scholars. Mentoring makes some folks feel good about their versions of social justice and inclusion. However, as a Black woman academic, I’ve seen col- leagues bullied by senior faculty. I’ve witnessed WOC scholars and myself be called out as exclusionary and “clique-
ish” for speaking our truths
about protections needed for WOC and allies doing social justice work. I have been silenced and gaslit. These microaggressions—
ones that I
have witnessed and ones that I have experienced—sometimes originated
from folks that I once considered mentors. What became clear to me is that gatekeepers masquerading as mentors are not only counterproduc- tive for the field; they are dangerous for WOC. Even more so, because WOC already inhabit precarious positionalities within academia and are relatively less privileged in general, many don’t speak out publicly against microaggressions that come from mentors in the field. As Harper notes in chapter 7 of this collection, microaggressions against and the silenc- ing of systemically marginalized folx is prevalent and all around us. In

Narratives from the Margins 23
essence, the silencing that occurs when a mentor has microaggressed an
already marginalized mentee seamlessly becomes part and parcel of the
original microaggression (the gatekeeping). This leaves WOC to question
their experiences, their knowledges, and sadly, which colleagues they can
trust. In this way, there is little recourse and little respite for WOC who
make the mistake of assuming that all mentors mean them well.
Miriam, my mentor, has modeled for me what mentorship should
look like for women like me. When I’ve experienced microaggressions
from others, Miriam has consistently stepped in—
using her positional-
ity, her visibility in the field, and her own social and cultural capital to advocate for me. She does this quietly—
without announcement and
without fanfare. But she ensures that, as a Black woman scholar
, I am
shielded as much as possible, that I am heard, that I have the resources that I need to do better than well—to excel. This is mentorship for folks
who look like me. Mentors, like Miriam who I found early
, or like Han
and Angela, who I came to know later in my academic career, consis- tently show up for me, always demonstrating that mentorship for WOC is listening. Mentorship for WOC is advocacy and action. Mentorship for WOC is being willing to hear new ideas, to learn from mistakes, to apolo- gize and improve, to celebrate marginalized ways of knowing, learning, and being and to protect the agency of others.
Josie
For many of us WOC scholars, the work of technical communication is intertwined with issues of social justice. And yet the normative paradigm in technical communication has been objective rationality and neutral- ity. This paradigm has dominated our approach to TC and served as a gatekeeping function, dictating how objectivity and neutrality are defined, recognized, and practiced as though there were a single story of technical communication. What it comes down to for me is: whose story gets told? Because TC has labeled the stories of marginalized folks subjective, balks at publishing scholarship that centers the marginalized, and denies our work its imprimatur, it has given license to antagonistic chatter that downplays the knowledge emerging from WOC. Such chat- ter emerges when scholarship intersects technical communication and the lived lives of the marginalized. Antagonists consider such scholar-
ship quaint, proffering compliments such as, “good for you,” with the unspoken question, “how is that technical communication?” Sometimes our scholarship is directly called out for not being TC! It can be difficult to call out such academic microaggressions. Antagonists maintain that

24 GO NZALES, WALWEMA, JONES, YU, AND WILLIAMS
they are engaging in an objective review of your work and often deflect
blame. Still I ask, whose story gets told?
In a research project on intercultural technical communication, I
interrogated how personas were constructed to represent different user
types depicting elements valued by that culture. Using a transliteracy
lens to examine the artifacts from that culture and how they supported
my analysis, I argued that in presenting these personas, the design-
ers displayed a keen understanding of this particular Middle-
Eastern
culture. W
ell, that analysis did not comport with established dominant
views about that culture; thus, it attracted reviewer feedback such as “the female persona is ‘ethnically incorrect.’ ” Exasperated, I turned to my
mentor and together we discussed the analysis and the evidence from which
I was drawing my conclusions. With a mentor’s support, I man-
aged to tell the story of that culture and to present the case as a study in technical communication. And yet given the push back, the lesson I learned was that I had to conform to the kind of knowledge that does not disrupt the master narrative!
Many WOC doing research that challenges established assumptions
have been labeled entitled, looking for special treatment (that violates meritocracy principles), or worse, burdening the system. Never con- sidered equal, we are seen as simultaneously needing hand holding and being reigned in. It is not clear whether this accusatory discourse is meant to elicit apologia or effusive defensiveness so we “never do it again.” Accusatory discourse, nevertheless, has the power to stifle novel approaches to the intractable problems of our times. The unspoken dictate of what counts as technical communication risks limiting and narrowing our understanding of what counts as knowledge. Like any other discipline, TC is bound up with subjective decisions. Your objec- tive neutrality might be my technology of disenfranchisement (Jones and Williams 2018). And when used in the service of job placement, promotion, and tenure decisions, your objective neutrality may stymie my growth and curtail my career despite its unstated biases. Systemic bias does not need TC to perpetuate it. Clearly rectifying systemic biases in our society calls for the kind of redress that begins with inclusive representation of our bodies, our scholarship, our ideas, our stories, ourselves. This is the work of technical communication.
LAURA
My ongoing journey to understand what it means for me to be a Latina, a Bolivian, an immigrant, an untenured scholar and professor, and a

Narratives from the Margins 25
cisgender woman with white skin has been shaped through the labor of
my WOC mentors, including all of my co-authors in this chapter.
The first TC panel that I was a part of took place at the Council for
Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC) confer-
ence. This panel was organized by Angela Haas, who made it possible for me to see myself and my work as viable in TC. From the beginning, I felt like my work on language justice and translation fit within the parameters of TC, precisely because mentors like Angela arranged for me to be on a panel with other scholars of color doing social justice work in the field. I came to CPTSC through the diversity fellowship that exists because of advocacy labor that has been taking place in the field through the work of Natasha, Miriam, Han, Josie, and other WOC who paved the way for scholars like me to have space and access in material, physical, and intellectual ways. Although I didn’t know her personally at the time, Han was the chair of the CPTSC diversity award committee the year I received the fellowship. I remember getting a congratulations email from Han, reading her scholarship, and feeling grateful for her presence and work. At a TC conference soon after, Josie and I met and bonded through stories of migration and immigrant family relations.
TC felt welcoming to me from the beginning not because we’re “a
friendly bunch” (as I’ve heard some people say at conferences), but because of the time, labor, commitment, leadership, and love of WOC who went (and continue going) out of their way to make space for me and support me unconditionally. As I continue being involved in the field, I am learning, through many mistakes, how to make space for and support others, and how to leverage my privileges to participate in WOC coalitions such as this chapter and project.
Part of learning to be a mentor and to advocate for justice and inclu-
sion and TC, in my experience, means grappling with and leveraging the comfort that my presence brings to white people in white spaces, particularly within TC and within academia. I am often perceived as suitable diversity on paper, the woman of color who can be invited into white spaces without visually disrupting the homogeneity of said space. Rooted back to the days in my childhood when I sat for hours in front of a mirror fighting to make my mouth move in a way that would utter words in English “without an accent,” I recognize that both my language and my seemingly inoffensive skin bring a sense of comfort to the white- ness of academia. This comfort frequently positions me as the token diversity who is expected to conform to white standards and practices while also helping people “check off” their diversity requirements. Yet, this is not how I try to operate, as I seek to subvert whiteness through

26 GO NZALES, WALWEMA, JONES, YU, AND WILLIAMS
my work while also leveraging my own positionality to make space for
others. This is not always easy, and I don’t always do it well, but it is
something I strive through and something I’ve learned through the
mentorship of others in TC, including Angela Haas and my co-
authors
in this chapter
.
Bringing comfort to whiteness also often yields unfiltered microag-
gressions and violence from people who have looked at me and claimed that I’m not a “real” Latina, that perhaps I am a “good” immigrant, or, worse, that if I am Latina, if I “count” as a woman of color, so do they, despite the fact that they have no roots in Latinx communities outside their own exploitative research. Because of my privilege, I have a respon- sibility to speak up when I witness both micro and macro aggressions taking place within and beyond TC. And, because of my WOC coalition, encompassing the authors of this chapter, I know that I can speak up, and that I won’t be alone in doing so.
EQUATIONS FOR ACTION: PRESENTING WAYS TO
ANTI-
COLONIAL A CTION IN AND BEYOND TC
As we worked to design a collective framework for centering WOC in
technical communication, we as authors of this chapter thought about
how we could extend our narratives to practical tools that can benefit
other scholars seeking to build and sustain social justice work in and
beyond technical communication. Often, when we as WOC in TC share
our narratives and stories in publications, presentations, and/or in
conversations with white colleagues, we are presented with various reac-
tions ranging from supportive and kind to dismissive and violent (and
everything in between):
“Oh, my goodness! I’m so sad to hear that. Thank you for sharing.”
“Your stories are so powerful. They remind me of
. . .”
“That is upsetting, but (how) is that relevant to technical communication?” “Your narrative is important, but it is not research.”
We all have heard various versions of these reactions in different set-
tings, as people struggle to understand if and how our experiences can
be applied to growth, learning, and action within and beyond the field
of TC. At the same time, we also recognize that as WOC, we are too-
often
asked to develop frameworks, tools, and strategies geared toward white audiences. For this reason, stemming from the emphasis on tools for action foregrounded in the call for this edited collection, we extend our

Narratives from the Margins 27
narratives into two tables that can be used as tools for supporting WOC
and scholars of color in TC. Table 1.1 is created for WOC to confront
and redress white supremacy with/in WOC communities in and beyond
TC, and table 1.2 provides some guidance for white accomplices seeking
to work toward social justice in TC.
Table 1.1 is intended to provide some guidance and tactics for WOC
to confront and work to redress white supremacy in our academic spaces.
We recognize that the proposed actions presented in this chart are always
tenuous for WOC. The strategies that we suggest are dependent on vari-
ous contextual factors that are different for WOC from various identities
working in different institutions. All of these scenarios and proposed
actions depend on institutional and personal factors, including rank,
positionality, privilege, availability, and dependability of mentorship.
Audrey Williams June (2015) explains how the labor of POC
is both invisible and critical to the institution’s—
and we add, our
discipline’s—success. She writes, “The hands-on attention that many
minority professors willingly provide is an unheralded linchpin in insti
-
tutional efforts to create an inclusive learning environment and to keep students enrolled. That invisible labor reflects what has been described as cultural taxation: the pressure faculty members of color feel to serve as role models, mentors, even surrogate parents to minority students, and to meet every institutional need for ethnic representation.” This cultural taxation can be redressed by white accomplices (Craig 2016) who recognize and practice their anti-
racist responsibility to call out
their white colleagues’ racist r
hetoric and actions and to make visible
and amplify (McKoy 2019) the invisible labor of WOC.
To be clear, accomplices are more desirable than allies. Accomplices
don’t require collaborations to be mutually beneficial nor expect atten- tion, credit, or kudos for their supportive work. Accomplices put their privilege on the line because it is the right thing to do when witnessing oppressive rhetoric and behavior toward someone with less privilege, power, and agency than them. As Collin Craig (2016) explains, accom- plices are willing to go to jail for you. Allies only support you when it’s convenient to them—
always pointing back at themselves. That said,
accomplices—and allies, for that matter—shouldn’t call themselves as
such. The communities and people to which we want to be considered an ally or accomplice deem it so.
This second table is intended to provide some guidance and strate-
gies for white folx who desire to be accomplices to confront and work to redress white supremacy in our academic spaces, including TC. We recognize that the proposed actions presented in this table are tenuous

28 GO NZALES, WALWEMA, JONES, YU, AND WILLIAMS
Table 1.1. Strategies for confronting white supremacy and building coalitions with/in WOC
communities in and beyond TC
When you Do not . . . Instead . . .
Disagree with what another
WOC says in a public meet-
ing made up of predomi- nantly white colleagues,
Publicly bring down or counter your W
OC colleague
in front of white colleagues.
Speak with your W
OC colleague
privately and come up with an action plan for resolving your disagreement separate from the meeting. Acknowl- edge your own power and positional- ity in relation to those of your W
OC
colleague. Acknowledge the hetero- geneity of W
OC experiences.
Are on a committee (for an award, promotion, confer-
ence, etc.) in which you are assessing a W
OC/POC
colleague’s work along with white colleagues and you notice the white colleagues on the committee are mak- ing racist remarks about your W
OC/POC colleague’s work,
Ignore these racist remarks to protect yourself from the white colleagues’ judgement.
Depending on your own rank/ positionality/privilege, find a way to intervene or document the racist remarks in support of the W
OC/POC.
If you are a junior scholar, report the issue to a more senior W
OC/
POC mentor you trust with experi-
ence and/or agency in relation to the committee.
Are a white-
presenting WOC
and notice that you are being supported by white colleagues who micro-

aggress or attack other WOC
colleagues,
Give props to the
white colleague sup- porting you (publicly or privately).
Depending on your own rank/ positionality/privilege, call out the white colleagues for their microag- gressions or find a more senior trusted accomplice to do so. Take the time and energy to support W
OC publicly
and privately.
Are overwhelmed and over-
worked due to “diversity” service requirements (like serving on committees as the only W
OC faculty member),
Suffer in silence and continue to accept these service assignments.
Speak with your administration about the problem of over-
reliance on WOC
labor to address “diversity” quotas. Suggest they research how to more genuinely engage and enact inclu- sion, beginning with active recruit- ment and retention of more diverse faculty and training for white faculty on how to teach and mentor students from underrepresented populations. If you cannot speak out, reach out to other W
OC scholars and accomplices
at your own and other institutions for advice and possibly intervention.
Feel threatened by or jealous of another W
OC in the disci-
pline or your institution,
Undermine her success.
Seek counseling from a therapist, spiritual advisor, or mentor of color to discern and address from where those unproductive and unhealthy feelings come.
for multimarginal white folx. The strategies that we suggest are depen-
dent on various contextual factors that differ depending upon vulner-
able embodiments and employment at different institutions. As such,
the proposed actions depend on institutional and disciplinary agency
influenced by rank, positionality, and privilege, among other factors.

Table 1.2. Strategies for being a white accomplice working against white supremacy in and
beyond TC
When you hear/
read/experience Example Do not . . . Instead . . .
A person of color
and/or an accom-
plice writing or
presenting work
in technical com-
munication venues
while citing schol-
arship that does not
directly “fit” with
white/mainstream/
“traditional” work
in the field
A W
OC scholar dis-
cusses embodiment in technical communica- tion by citing Indig- enous and Chicana theorists.
Publicly bring down or coun- ter your W
OC
colleague in front of white colleagues.
Speak with your W
OC
colleague privately and come up with an action plan for resolv- ing your disagreement separate from the meeting. Acknowledge your own power and positionality in relation to your W
OC
colleague’s. Acknowledge the heterogeneity of W
OC
experiences.
A scholar of color sharing their expe- riences of racism in a public platform
A scholar of color tweets about a con- ference presentation (perhaps even your own presentation) and points to the use of rac- ist language.
Ignore these racist remarks to protect yourself from the white colleagues’ judgement.
Depending on your own rank/positionality/ privilege, find a way to intervene or document the racist remarks in support of the W
OC/POC. If you
are a junior scholar, report the issue to a more senior W
OC/POC mentor you
trust with experience and/ or agency in relation to the committee.
A scholar of color is being attacked or micro-
aggressed by
a white colleague
At a conference, fol- lowing a presentation by a scholar of color, a white colleague “asks a question that’s not really a question,” claims what is being presented is not “real tech comm,” argues that technical com- munication should be kept separate from the “political,” or tries to recenter themselves and/or white scholars/ hip.Give props
to the white colleague sup- porting you (publicly or privately).
Depending on your own rank/positionality/ privilege, call out the white colleagues for their microaggressions or find a more senior trusted accomplice to do so. Take the time and energy to support W
OC publicly
and privately.
A scholar of color shares their exhaus- tion or frustration
A scholar of color tweets about being overwhelmed with work.
Respond with “we’re all busy,” or “we’re all tired,” or “you should stop working and take the weekend for self-
care.”
Offer solidarity, actionable
help, or don’t respond at all. Recognize that labor functions differently for P
OC scholars who have to
work harder to have their work recognized, are deal- ing with microaggressions on the daily, are tapped to do more institutional, organizational, and disci- plinary “diversity work.”
continued on next page

30 GO NZALES, WALWEMA, JONES, YU, AND WILLIAMS
Table 1.2—continued
When you hear/
read/experience Example Do not . . . Instead . . .
Scholars of color
establishing spaces
to support each
other, protect each
other and build
coalitions
Scholars of color in an
organization are plan-
ning an event or meet-
ing space.
Ask if/how
white col-
leagues will
react to or “be
offended” by
being excluded
from these
spaces or claim
such coalition-

building is rev
erse racism.
Provide support (material or otherwise) or simply don’t involve yourself so that these spaces can be cultivated without your gatekeeping.
White colleagues saying that they want to hire a diverse candidate during a job search and/or recruit diverse students to their programs in order to “diver-
sify” it
You are on a search committee and attend a meeting where the committee is strat- egizing how to recruit diverse candidates.
Say you have a lot of P
OC
friends, that all the candidates do “diversity work,” or that you have white friends who do good work so they should also be equally considered.
Ask how the program/ department/university plans to support these marginalized students and colleagues if/when they get to campus. Work to increase and sustain this support.
A colleague of color with whom you are excited to interact
You are at a conference and run into a scholar of color you like.
Hug, kiss, or otherwise touch the person without first establishing/ prior establish- ment of their consent.
Ask them about their teaching, research, ser-
vice, lives, etc. Share what you learned from their lat- est publication.
A racist or xeno- phobic comment while only other white folx are around
You are at a confer-
ence luncheon and an attendee says something racist or xenophobic about a colleague in the discipline.
Ignore it since there were no P
OC there or
ask a POC to
bear witness to your feel- ings around it or translate or assess the hate for you.
Call out racism and xeno- phobia even when the targets are not present. Ask a white accomplice to process the racist or xenophobic rhetoric, your intervention, and your feelings surrounding it.
IMPLICATIONS
While tables 1.1 and 1.2 are certainly not exhaustive in providing strate-
gies for confronting and redressing white supremacy in and beyond TC,
the overall message is that justice-
driven work in and beyond TC requires
mindful action (Jones, Moore, and W
alton 2016) from both WOC/POC
communities and from allies and accomplices. Furthermore, we as WOC

Narratives from the Margins 31
in TC can support each other in dealing with cultural taxation and
aggression in the field by recognizing and leveraging our own privileges
and intersectional positionalities.
Terese Guinsatao Monberg (2009) explains that it is important to
acknowledge how individuals experience and navigate the world “within
their own borders or communities” (22; emphasis in original). In other
words, just as we should listen to the experiences and narratives of oth-
ers, we as WOC in TC also seek to understand and grapple with our own
identities and our own “recursive spatial movement” within our commu-
nities (Monberg 2009, 22). It is our hope that through this chapter we
validated how some WOC navigate academia and our discipline—
within
and because of
borders and communities—
and educated others with
our narratives. It is our hope that we offered strategies and tactics for charting
anti-
colonial futures for our discipline. As Cherokee storyteller
Thomas King (2005) writes, “don’t say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard [these sto- ries]. You’ve heard [them] now” (29).
REFERENCES
Craig, Collin. 2016. “Institutional Whiteness and the Uneven Work of ‘Diversity.’
” Confer-
ence on College Composition and Communication. Houston, TX, April 2016.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black
Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Poli-
tics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 140: 139–167.
Gutiérrez y Muhs, Gabriella, Y
olanda Flores Niemann, Carmen González, and Angela
Harris, eds.
2012. Pr esumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in
Academia. Logan: Utah State University Press.
Jones, Natasha N. 2016. “Narrative Inquiry in Human-Centered Design: Examining
Silence and V
oice to Promote Social Justice in Design Scenarios.” Journal of Technical
Writing and Communication 46 (4): 471–
492.
Jones, Natasha N., Kristen R. Moore, and Rebecca W
alton. 2016. “Disrupting the Past to
Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Communication.” Technical Commu- nication Quarterly 25 (4): 211–229.
Jones, Natasha N., and Miriam F
. Williams. 2018. “Technologies of Disenfranchisement:
Literacy Tests and Black Voters in the US from 1890 to 1965.” Technical Communication 65 (4): 371–386.
June, Audrey Williams. November 8, 2015. “The Invisible Labor of Minority Professors.” The
Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https:// www .chronicle .com/ article/ The
-Invisible -Labor -of/ 234098.
King, Thomas. 2005. The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
Mckoy, Temptaous. 2019. “Y’all call it Technical and Professional Communication, We
call it #ForTheCulture: The Use of Amplification Rhetorics in Black Communities and their Implications for Technical and Professional Communication Studies.” PhD diss., East Carolina University.

32 GO NZALES, WALWEMA, JONES, YU, AND WILLIAMS
Monberg, Terese Guinsatao. 2009. “Writing Home or Writing as the Community: Toward
a Theory of Recursive Spatial Movement for Students of Color in Service-Learning
Courses.” Reflections
8 (3): 21–
51.
Morrison,
Toni. 1975. “A Humanist View” as part of Black Studies Center Public Dialogue. Pt.
2. May
30, 1975.
Sue, David Wing. 2010. Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation.
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Yu, Han, and Gerald Savage. 2013. Negotiating Cultural Encounters: Narrating Intercultural
Engineering and Technical Communication. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

2
IÑUPIAT IḶITQUSIAT
An Indigenist Ethics Approach for Working with
Marginalized Knowledges in Technical Communication
Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq
DOI: 10.7330/9781646421084.c002
Uvaŋa Uluak. Maamaga aasrii I’yiiqpak. Iñupiaqatiuvuklu iḷ avuklu
Nuurviŋmiuŋurut. My name is Uluak. My mother is Gladys I’yiiqpak
(Wells) Pungowiyi. We are Iñupiat and our relatives are from Noorvik,
a small village on the Kobuk River located in Northwest Alaska. I am
also the daughter of the late Caleb Lumen Pungowiyi, a Siberian Yupik
from the Qiwaaghmii clan of Savoonga, a small village located on
St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. I am the
fourth of nine children shared by my wonderful parents.
In this chapter, you will be hearing my voice. My voice, if you could
hear its timbre, is both eager and reluctant. Though I am an Iñupiaq
scholar with qualifications valued in academia, I am in no way an author-
ity on the Iñupiat culture. That distinction, as I was taught, is solely for
Elders. Therefore, so I can represent my Iñupiat people responsibly, I
consulted the expert advice of Iñupiat Elders in writing this manuscript.
To be clear, this process included multiple conversations, sending drafts
for critique, implementing suggested changes, and so on, until the
Elders told me “tara” (good enough). Without those steps, I could not
be proud of this work.
In these pages, I will share how the Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat, a traditional ethi-
cal framework, is incorporated into the lives of tribal members. Though
others have written about the Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat as a research methodology
(Hogan and Topkok 2015), sharing this knowledge is not without risk.
Simpson (2014) describes an aspect of sovereignty as “protecting the
concerns of the community” through a refusal to tell certain stories or
deliver certain Indigenous knowledges to outsiders (105). For example,
in an article that incorporates Iñupiat Elder knowledges of traditional
places, Kingston (2017) acts to protect cultural knowledges by refusing
to provide the locations of these places for fear of looting (8). Similarly,

34 ITCHUAQIYAQ
I was taught to be careful about sharing my cultural heritage with outsid-
ers because appropriation/looting and marginalizing practices are real
concerns with real impacts.
“But what will they do with them?” my mother, an Iñupiaq Elder, asked
after I called her to tell her the news of my first academic publication,
this chapter, accepted on a promise to position our traditional values as a
potential lens for research.
“They’ll use them to understand things that are happening,” I an-
swered. Her silence stared at me, showing me a long history of our people
being noticed only once we were deemed useful.
Finally, she asked, “Why do they need our tools? What can they do to us
with them?”
*
* * *
This
chapter explores the ethical possibilities of engaging with mar-
ginalized communities in technical and professional communication
(TPC) practice, research, and scholarship. I argue that using locally
situated value systems as lenses for shifting one’s paradigm from an
ethnocentristic, dominant-
cultural perspective towards a perspective
that is established from within marginalized communities is crucial for decolonial methodologies. Specifically, this chapter argues that those who wish to develop “Indigenist” research paradigms need a framework that challenges default dominant-
culture perspectives. This
chapter describes Indigenous virtue ethics, the embodiment of locally situated values, as a theoretical tool that provides locally appropriate analysis and offers an inroad for scholars from all backgrounds to challenge colonial thinking and effectively develop an Indigenist para- digm for social justice work. Though I provide practical advice about whether, when, and how scholars might consider using Indigenous knowledges, I hope that this chapter will help inform similar consid- erations regarding using knowledges created for and by marginalized populations.
Before we begin, I want to address those who (rightly) wonder about
the appropriateness of non-
Indigenous settler-scholars and practitio-
ners using Indigenist paradigms and theoretical frameworks in their work. Some questions that you might have are: “Is it okay for me, a non-
Indigenous person, to use this stuff, and when, exactly, is its use
appropriate?” and “Is this chapter even written for someone like me?” To start, I validate your concerns and say keep reading. I offer the follow- ing experiences that illustrate how I, an Indigenous scholar, began to answer these questions for myself:

Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat 35
• At A
scholar Victor Del Hierro about hip hop cyphers associated with hip
hop culture. In his talk, Del Hierro argued that if you visibly benefit
(such as in a scholarly publication) from the use of a cultural prac-
tice and are not a participant in, or accountable to, that community,
then that is appropriation. This experience helped me understand
that appropriateness-
of-use is relationally based.
• A non-Indigenous technical communication practitioner working for
my tribe once told me how our tribe’
s value system informs how they
make both professional and personal decisions. Their personal com- mitment to these values helped me understand that our traditional values can inspire community-
driven and socially just action in anyone.
• While I was working on this chapter, my mother asked me some
pointed questions, as you saw earlier in this chapter. In an earlier draft of this chapter, I ended the opening section with this statement: “Mom, I am going to vouch for my colleagues and trust they won’t let us
down.” A reviewer wisely noted that, though I was committed to vali- dating Elders’ input, I was not validating my own mother’s concerns when it is her—
and not some unknown scholar—that I should trust
when it comes to protecting the welfare of our community. They further commented that this behavior models a disregard for local perspectives, such as “soft” nos, in favor of personal research agendas. I was reminded of a word my aana, my grandmother, would say to me: piḷḷauta��niaqsa� alua�aa. It means “a person who really tries to do
a good job, but
. . .” This experience showed me that, though I genu-
inely care about knowledge legitimation practices and decolonial methods, I make mistakes that wound those I care about the most. Good intentions do not equal good methods. (Pisan� itchikpiñ, Mom.
I’m sorry. I am listening and will try to do better.)
TOWARDS AN INDIGENIST PARADIGM
I am the first of my siblings to attend graduate school and, once I fin-
ish, I will be one of the few Iñupiat to earn a PhD (Jones 2015, 22–
26).
I mention this only because I need to emphasize a dichotomy: though I was
raised in a strong Inuit family and community honoring Inuit
ways, I was also raised and trained by Western ways. This fact calls to attention how the default settings of my thinking can affect what I value instinctively. Fostering an Indigenous worldview when one has grown up in “two worlds” takes a great amount of personal and communal effort (Kawagley 2006, 91–
121). This type of paradigm shift is best supported
though
the active incorporation of Indigenous values, which “bridge
the cultural gap between Indigenous peoples and [non-
Indigenous peo-
ples]” (John-Shields 2017, 121), especially as they apply to cross-cultural
personal, professional, and academic situations.

36 ITCHUAQIYAQ
An Indigenous research paradigm (IRP) is the development of
decolonial research practice that takes into account the worldview with
which the research is approached. Wilson (2003) defines paradigm as
“a set of underlying beliefs or assumptions that guide our actions, be
they in research or teaching or life in general. Paradigms are based on
theory and as such are intrinsically value-
laden” (175). Beginning with an
appropriate decolonial paradigm—in other words, actively committing
to a reorientation away from settler/Western practices and focusing on Indigenous practices—
is essential to an IRP. For those who wish to fol-
low decolonial methods in their work, a shift in one’s research paradigm as well as one’s own personal paradigm is almost universally necessary in order to enact decoloniality instead of merely using “decolonize” as a catch-
all term appropriated to mean human rights or social justice. Tuck
and Yang (2012) state that “decolonization specifically requires the repa- triation of Indigenous land and life. Decolonization is not a metonym for social justice” (21). In other words, though many have persuasively called for decolonial research practices in TPC (Agboka 2014; Haas 2012; Jones 2016), individuals must not treat decolonization metaphorically to be “grafted onto pre-
existing [frameworks] . . . even if they are justice frame-
works” (Tuck and Yang 2012, 3). Instead, decolonial frameworks must begin with an Indigenist paradigm (Wilson 2003, 2007, 2008), an enact- ment of value-
laden beliefs that are based upon restoring and respecting
the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples, lands, and knowledges, support- ing community-
developed aspirations, and supporting the changing and
improving of unjust conditions (Smith 2012, 195–196).
Considering paradigmatic shifts is not new to TPC. Agboka (2018)
describes
how shifting paradigms towards centralizing ethics and Indig

enous contexts in TPC pedagogy benefits local communities impacted
by technical communication practice, especially marginalized communi- ties. In his rationale for centralizing Indigenous human rights perspec- tives, he states, “technical communication, I believe, is a virtuous field, because we have been involved with issues of ethics for many years” (116, emphasis mine). By calling on the virtues of the field, Agboka declares that technical communicators are compelled to act upon set(s) of values driven by community-
defined ethics. Sackey (2018) argues that TPC
values should include environmental justice as an integral part of their socially just core (139), a move that centers the relationship humans/ plants/animals/things have with the land, their corresponding environ- ments, and other humans/plants/animals/things. These calls for para- digm shifts demonstrate the need to consider locally situated values as part of social justice praxis in TPC.

Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat 37
Though TPC scholars describe the benefits or needs of paradigmatic
shifts to the field, they generally do not address the process and benefits
of paradigmatic shifts to the individual. This difference is significant
because, when it all boils down, it is within the scholar or practitioner
that the enactment of ethical dispositions takes place (Colton and
Holmes 2018, 45). Further, decolonial work is done in the spaces that
paradigmatic shifts create. An IRP requires the performance of an
Indigenist paradigm at its core (Wilson 2007, 193–
194) and asks indi-
viduals to adhere to eleven principles that include:
•
The reason for doing the research must be one that brings benefits
to the Indigenous community
.
•
The foundation of the research question must lie within the reality of the Indigenous experience.
•
Any theories developed or proposed must be grounded in an Indigenous epistemology and supported by the Elders and the com
-
munity that live out this particular epistemology.
• It will be recognized that the researcher must assume a certain responsibility for the transformations and outcomes of the research project(s) which [they] bring into a community
.
• It is advisable that a researcher work as part of a team of Indigenous scholars/thinkers and with the guidance of Elder(s) or knowledge-

keepers. (Wilson 2007, 195).
An IRP (rightly) asks individuals to enact an Indigenous worldview
in their research practices. Likewise, because a universal Indigenous
experience does not exist, even researchers from Indigenous back-
grounds may find it challenging to adopt worldviews from other
Indigenous peoples. This practice of shifting paradigms is especially
difficult to do when one is socialized into Western ways of thinking and
acting. What is needed is a “replacement” set of values, like a set of new
glasses, as a way of shedding, however temporary, one’s default point of
view. As the experience with my mother demonstrates, it is too easy to
devalue the contributions or concerns of marginalized communities.
Even when we are socialized in a marginalized community, we are also
socialized into the dominant systems, and perhaps, may enact values
according to convenience. To reorient one’s way of thinking, planning,
prioritizing, and analyzing requires a great deal of humility, account-
ability partners, and practice. I was lucky that I had a coalition of sup-
port (Walton, Moore, and Jones 2019, 71) who lovingly challenged me
as I questioned my motives, my actions, and even the root argument
of this chapter in order to act in accordance with the values I claimed
I wanted to uphold.

38 ITCHUAQIYAQ
INDIGENOUS VIRTUE ETHICS
Virtue ethics locates ethical and unethical actions in an individual’s
moral character or disposition through their habits (Colton and Holmes
2018, 14). The principles of an IRP require those who want to con-
duct decolonial research to change the habits instilled by mainstream
Western academic training. According to philosopher Viola Cordova
(2003), many Indigenous approaches to virtue ethics focus on ethical
behaviors that are grounded in communal forms of relationality (173).
Indigenous virtue ethics, then, offers an alternative to Western virtue
ethics’ stance that “does not privilege the individual over the community
or vice versa” (Colton and Holmes 2018, 38). Instead, Indigenous virtue
ethics situates the community in a privileged position over the individual
and offers an appropriate lens, or localized theoretical paradigm, to
replace default modes of thinking.
This chapter demonstrates what TPC scholarship would look like if
one started from Indigenous knowledge systems as a foundation, as is
required by an IRP. The specific Indigenous virtue ethics this chapter
draws upon is based on northern Alaskan Iñupiat values, the Iñupiat
Iḷitqusiat (Iḷitqusiat: spirit, a way of life, a habit). These values center
ancestral knowledge and tribal responsibility in ways that ask individu-
als to understand who they are, how they represent themselves and the
world around them, and how they affect others. There are seventeen
possible values in the Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat to employ,
1
but this chapter will
focus on three—
responsibility to tribe, knowledge of family tree, and
knowledge of language—as they center on Indigeneity and directly push
back
against colonialism through acts of survivance (Vizenor 1999, 15). I
also demonstrate how these values inform the creation and subsequent analysis of personal biography statements in a technical document pro- duced by and for an Indigenous community. These statements—
like
many forms of TPC specific to marginalized communities—exhibit
genre features that are difficult and per
haps even impossible to under-
stand if evaluated by Western rhetorical/ethical norms. Worse, forcing a Western lens can lead to misrepresentation and cultural erasure.
At this point, you might want a generalized set of Indigenous virtue
ethics to work from. Rather, I will gently caution you to reconsider the paradigm associated with expecting knowledges in systematic or total- izing ways. Just as Indigenous peoples are not all the same, neither are our values. However, there are general ethical contours that Indigenous thinkers across communities and times share. Indigenous virtue ethics, in general, tend to focus on community-
based Indigenous identity as
paramount to individual identity (Cordova 2003, 177–178). Indigenous

Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat 39
virtue ethics are community-specific values. Learning what implicit or
explicit values a community has and using those as your way of thinking
about all aspects of working with/for that community is good practice.
It’
s not enough to just “start with an Indigenous thinker” (although
such a step is still important). Indigenous virtue ethics theory both
requires and creates a firm commitment to decolonial approaches. Even
if certain knowledges may seem to apply readily to any ethical problem
in TPC, such knowledges may be subject to an enactment of sovereign
refusal. Thus, for scholars wanting to use frameworks such as Indigenous
virtue ethics (as a useful supplement to an IRP) for social justice work,
it is more important to consider what paradigmatic starting places and
constraints researchers find themselves in, relative to their subject posi-
tions, before adopting, rather than appropriating, conceptual frameworks
that were originally designed for use by marginalized groups.
The Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat
The Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat, a set of Indigenous virtue ethics, represent an
oral tradition passed down through story for the Iñupiat of Northwest
Alaska. In the early 1980s, Iñupiat Elders gathered together to codify
these seventeen values as an act of survivance. These Elders—
many born
at the beginning of the twentieth century before Westerners established large-
scale assimilation practices—were raised by the Iñupiapaat, Iñupiat
who were considered exemplars of practicing traditional ways in their daily lives. The Elders of the 1980s, the first generation whose lives were deeply impacted by colonization, understood what was at stake. As an act of survivance, they worked together to distill what it meant to be Iñupiat through writing down their ancient values for the safekeeping of future generations. According to Iñupiaq Elder William I��ia�ruk Hensley, who helped facilitate the codification of the values, the Iñupiat Iḷitqusiat “reflects an individual’s Iñupiat spirit, reflected in behavior that con- nects one to a continuum and a sense of belonging.”
2
If a tribal member
were to exemplify these values in their daily living practices, they, too, could be Iñupiapaaq —
even in today’s modern context.
Iñuuniaqatiunik Ikayuutiłiq—
Responsibility to Tribe
We are connected to each other through our cultural spirit handed
down to us through our teachings and values.
—Taimakŋa Al�aqsruutit (Elders’ Advice, NANA Regional Elders
Council 2016)

Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:

“But is it certain that because he is her father’s guest the other must
follow?” said Edgar, who asked the question at random, without thinking
much about it. The answer was a little pointed, and it found a lodgment in
his mind.
“Oh dear no, Mr. Arden. But yet the world is apt to ask why does he go
there? What does he want in that house? It is a question that is asked
whenever a young man visits a great deal at a house where there are girls.”
“I did not know that,” said Edgar, with a simplicity which went to Lady
Augusta’s heart. “I believe he is as innocent as a baby,” she said afterwards
when she was telling the story. “He may be as innocent as he pleases, but he
shan’t trifle with Gussy,” said Harry, putting on a very valiant air. Gussy, for
her own part, did not know what to think. “He likes me very well, but that is
all,” she said to her mother. “I am sure he means nothing. Indeed, mamma, I
am quite sure——”
“I don’t think you know anything at all about it,” said Lady Augusta,
with some irritation; for Edgar was her own protegé—it was she who had
vouched for him, and settled how everything was to be—and not only her
pride but her feelings were concerned. She thought she had never met with
any one she could like so well for a son-in-law. He was so thoughtful, so
considerate, and (a matter which is well worth noting) had the air of liking
her too, for herself, as well as for her daughter. “One could really make a
son of him,” the poor lady said to herself with a sigh; for to tell the truth she
was sometimes sadly in want of a good son to help her. The girls were very
good, but they were only girls, and could not be of all the use a man could
—and Harry was quite as much trouble as comfort—and Mr. Thornleigh
left everything to his wife. Therefore she was reluctant to give up the idea
of Edgar, which was, as we have said, her own idea. It was so seldom that
everything that could be desired was to be found united in one person, as in
his case. When a man was very “nice” and a comfort to talk to, the chances
were he was poor and had to be snubbed instead of encouraged. But Edgar
was everything that was desirable, even down to his very local position. So
Lady Augusta spoke very sharply even to her favourite daughter when she
insinuated that Edgar was indifferent. “You don’t know anything at all
about it,” was what she said; and she clung to the idea with a certain
desperation. Arden was so near, and the family was so good, and the rent-
roll so satisfactory, and the man so nice. It was impossible to improve the
combination which she found in him; and Lady Augusta’s mind was fully

made up to brave a great deal, and do a great deal, before she relinquished
the prize which Providence had thrown in her way.

CHAPTER XXIII.
Edgar left the Thornleighs that day with several quite new subjects of
thought. His heart was touched to the very quick by that little revelation
which Gussy had made to him of her sister’s history. It stopped him quite
suddenly in the current of his previous reflections. He had been so full of
the unprofitableness and unmeaningness of the new existence into which he
found himself thrown, that the discovery of a tragedy so simple and so
hopeless, just one step out of it, upset once more all his conclusions. The
idea he had been forming was, that within the range of “Society” strong
feeling of any kind, much less passion, was impossible—even suffering and
death seemed things too great and too human to penetrate within that
artificial ring. He could have imagined the same routine going on for ever
and ever, without any novelty in it, or touch of the real. Yet here, upon the
very edge of the eternal dance, here was a single silent figure who had
suffered (as Edgar felt, in the fervour of youthful sympathy) the extremity
of human woe. How strange it was! The contrast confused him, and gave
another turn, as it were, to his whirling brain. They were then human
creatures after all, those people of fashion, whirling on and on in their
everlasting round. Sometimes pain, passion, disappointment, tragical
rending asunder of hearts and lives, proved their real nature. Perhaps even
the man who was trying to take all the use out of his life by means of
engagements twenty deep, had been pierced through and through with some
such shaft as that which had killed poor Ada’s lover. Perhaps some of those
women who hurried from one assemblage to another as fast as hours and
horses could carry them had suffered in silence all that Ada had done, and
lost all savour and sweetness in life like her. Edgar felt himself pulled up
short, and paused in his wholesale criticisms. How could he tell—how
could any one tell—what lay underneath the surface of the stream? He
paused, and then he went off at a tangent, as young philosophers are apt to
do, and asked himself whether this flutter and crowding and universal buzz
of amusement was not a vast pretence, adopted by common consent, to hide
what everybody was suffering underneath? outside an attempt to appear as
if they were having things their own way, enjoying to the height of their
capacity all the good the world could give; but underneath a deep universal

conviction that life was naught, and happiness a dream! Was this the true
theory of life? The question occupied him a great deal more perhaps than
the readers of this history will sympathise with; but then, it must be
remembered that it was all very new to him, and that every novel phase of
life strikes us more strongly than that to which we are accustomed. To
Arthur Arden, for instance, the course of existence which startled Edgar was
too common to call for a single question. It was the ordinary state of affairs
to him. But Edgar knew the other forms so much better. He understood
those conditions under which a man labours that he may live. That theory
was familiar to him which makes the day’s work necessary to the day; but
to exist in order to get rid of your existence—to bend all your faculties to
the question, not how you are to provide for, but how you are to spend and
dispose of your days, that was new to him. And therefore he puzzled over it
in a way which a man of fashion to the manner born could not possibly
understand. The man of fashion would probably have been quite as much
astonished and amazed by Edgar’s prejudices in favour of something to do.
Something to do! Why, Harry Thornleigh had a hundred things to do, and
never a moment to spare, and yet had never been of use either to himself or
any other living creature all his life!
And then this new theory—about what was expected of young men who
visited in houses where there were girls—troubled Edgar much. The other
question occupied his intelligence, but this one disturbed him in a tenderer
point. It hurt his amour-propre in the first place; for to suppose you have
been a favourite in a house on your own merits, and then to find that you
are only encouraged with a view of providing for a daughter, is sadly
humbling to a young man’s vanity; and it hurt him in the affectionate
respect he had for women in general and the Thornleighs in particular. He
liked them all so kindly and so truly, and had been so pleased to believe that
they liked him; whereas, apparently, it was only on the chance that he
should bestow what he had upon one of them that they admitted him so
freely. What a disenchantment it was! Instead of being their friend, whom
they had confidence in, he was a man who meant nothing like Arthur Arden
—a man whose inclinations were speculated upon, and his indifference
despised. Edgar asked himself with a certain bitterness which of them it was
whom he was expected to address. Perhaps the stately Helena,
notwithstanding her views about the occupations of women, had been given
to understand that it was her duty to accept Arden instead; perhaps Gussy

—— But Edgar could not help feeling sore on this subject. He was fond of
Gussy, he said to himself; she was so frank, and so friendly, and so
sympathetic, so ready to respond, so willing to communicate. He could not
bear the idea that she had been making merchandise of him, and calculating
upon Arden—for, of course, it is Arden, not me, he thought. I for myself am
nobody—less a great deal than the poor fellow who died, whom they seem
to have had a kind of human feeling for. She cried over him even—and
laughed, and said I meant nothing, Edgar added, in a sudden flush of pique
and dissatisfaction. What meaning, I wonder, did she intend me to have?
From this it will be seen that Edgar Arden was not in love—was not the
least in love; but yet did not care that Gussy should think of him as an
article of merchandise—a creature representing settlements and a house of
her own. It is a humiliating position for a man to find himself in. It is
pleasant (perhaps) to be the object of pursuit, and to feel that mothers and
daughters are fluttered by your entrance or exit, or by any silly word it may
be your pleasure to address to the young women who are being put up to
market. But even to those young women who are put up to market the
transaction is scarcely so humbling as it is to the man, who is reckoned
among them not as a man at all, but as so much money, so many lands, so
many luxuries. Edgar was cast down by this revelation—down to the very
depths. What a fool he had been to think they liked him. Was he worth
liking by anybody? Was he not rather an insignificant, common-place
wretch, unworthy the least notice on his own merits? And he did not in the
least desire to be noticed for the sake of Arden. It seemed to him the very
last depth of contempt.
For a few days after this Edgar went about very sadly, abstaining from
everybody, and feeling very much like a culprit. He kept away from Lady
Augusta’s pleasant house, and that did not make him any the happier; and
then it suddenly occurred to him that he might be thought, in the odious
jargon of “society,” to be “behaving badly” to Gussy, a thought which stung
him so that he seized his hat and rushed out to call, meaning he knew not
what—perhaps to ask her piteously if she really wanted Arden, and to offer
it to her acceptance. But the room was full of visitors, and Gussy took very
little notice of him, and it would be impossible to say how small he felt,
how impertinent and presumptuous; but still the thought came back.
It is usual to take it for granted that only one or two of the greater and
more primitive sentiments are concerned in that great act of marriage,

which is so important a matter for good or for evil in human life. People
marry for love, which is the natural motive; or they marry for money or
money’s equivalent—comfort, advancement, and advantageous
development of life. And, no doubt, it is very true that in the majority of
cases these are the feelings which are most involved. But yet it is
astonishing how many secondary motives come in to determine the most
momentous of personal decisions. Edgar Arden had never experienced a
grande passion. He had thought himself in love two or three times in his
life, and he knew that he had got over the feeling. It was a thing he was
ashamed of when he came to think of it, but nevertheless it was quite true
that he had got over it. He had just skimmed the surface of those emotions
which culminate in the kind of love which is for ever. At the moment he had
thought himself deeply moved, but afterwards, with mingled amusement
and shame, he had confessed to himself that it was nothing but a passing
ripple which had gone over him. Perhaps he was not of a passionate nature,
nor one who would be subject to any tragic force of feeling. His love would
be tender and deep and true, but it would not be wild or all-absorbing, and
he was a man who would be capable of considering the interests of the
woman he loved apart from himself, which is a kind of generosity
sometimes not at all appreciated by the object of such affection. Perhaps, on
the whole, the most real lover, the one most attractive to a woman, is the
selfish man who wants her for his own happiness, and will have her,
whatever the obstacles may be, rather than the disinterested man who prizes
her happiness most, and sacrifices himself and lets her go—not sufficiently
realising, perhaps, that he has sacrificed her too. But the absence of this
impassioned selfishness on Edgar’s part laid him open to the action of all
the secondary motives. Never did there exist a more friendly affectionate
soul. He would have put himself to trouble to procure what it wanted for
any child he heard crying by the way. It came natural to him, as it comes
natural to some men, by hook or by crook, to secure their own advantage.
And if it really should be the case that he himself, or rather Mr. Arden of
Arden, was a thing that Gussy Thornleigh wanted very much, and would be
the happier for, why should not she have it? The idea was a little absurd,
and yet he could not bring forward a single sufficient reason why it should
not be so. Actually, when he considered the matter fully, he had no personal
objections. She would be a very sweet, very bright little companion—not a
fault could be found with her in any way—— Nay, Edgar was too

chivalrous to discuss Gussy or any other woman in this irreverent manner
—— What he meant to himself was rather that any man might be proud and
happy to have such a wife. And he had no other love to stand between him
and her; no; no other love—except that visionary love whom every young
man looks to find somewhere, the Una of imagination, the perfect woman.
She only, and no other—and she was no woman’s rival. No doubt she
would fold her wings and drop down out of the skies, and shadow over and
melt into the being of Edgar’s wife. Therefore if Gussy chose—— Why
should not this be——
But perhaps he was just as glad that he had not been allowed a
possibility of committing himself. It was not his fault; he would have done
it had he been alone with her, or even had he been able to get her to himself
in a corner of the drawing-room, apart from immediate observation. But
that had been impossible; and consequently it was Providence, not Edgar,
which had kept it from coming to pass. Yet he was not sorry; he reflected
philosophically that there was plenty of time. She was not in love with him,
he felt sure, any more than he was in love with her. She was not in any
hurry. She was a dear, good, reasonable girl. In short, the more he thought
of it, the more he came to see that (apart from romance, which was always
absurd) nothing could be more appropriate in every way. They were made
for each other. They were neither of them solemn, passionate people—they
were both lively, cheerful, fond of a little movement and commotion, and
yet fond of the country and of a reasonable life, with duty and responsibility
in it. Gussy, alas! thought very little, had he but known it, of duty and
responsibility; but this was how the matter shaped itself in Edgar’s mind. Of
course, there was no need for anything being decided in a hurry. Clare
would probably marry first—or, if not, Clare’s wishes must be supreme,
whatever they were. She would live with them at Arden—she would still be
mistress—no, that was perhaps impossible. At all events, she would still be
—— Here Edgar found himself in deep waters and stuck fast, not quite
making out how this was to be settled. Clare in Arden, and not mistress of
Arden was impossible. No doubt, had his feelings been very deeply
concerned, he would not have been deterred by such a thought—but as it
was chiefly for other people’s satisfaction that he was planning the
arrangement, it was a very serious drawback. What! please Gussy at the
cost of Clare? This was the most grave obstacle to the plan which had yet
come in his way.

He was still in this perplexity, and not without a consciousness of its
whimsical character, when he received Clare’s letter. There was something
strained and strange in its expression which struck him curiously. Why
should she write to him so? Of course she might ask anything of him—call
him to her as she pleased. To make a journey from London to Lancashire
was not much—a great deal farther, to the end of the world had she wished
it, he would have gone willingly for his sister. He wrote her a little note, full
of affectionate playful reproach. “Though I have a hundred things to do,” he
said; “though I am engaged to go to twenty balls, and ten dinners, and three
concerts, and seventeen afternoon teas, in the course of the next four days,
yet I will hurry through the most pressing of my engagements, and come
home on Saturday.” But the meaning of the letter was not in the least the
thing that struck him—she wanted to consult him about something, that was
all he made of it. And as for the manner of expression, Clare was in haste,
or she was annoyed about something, or perhaps a little out of temper. Now
and then Clare could be a little out of temper, he knew. Perhaps the village
people had been troublesome—perhaps it had vexed her that Arthur Arden
should be staying with the Pimpernels. But, on the whole, haste was the
most natural explanation. Thus he settled the matter with himself with very
little difficulty; and on the whole he was very glad to be called home. And
then it occurred to him all at once that the Thornleighs were going on
Monday—and then——
Surely, and beyond all question, fate must have decided this matter for
him. His summons had come to him at such a moment and in such a way
that he must be supposed to be following the Thornleighs home, as he had
been supposed to follow them to town. He could not but laugh as he
perceived this new complication. Now, indeed, unless he took pains to show
that he did mean something, there could be no doubt that it would be said
Gussy was badly treated. When he went into the solemn shades of the
Minerva to seek Lord Newmarch, with whom he had some business, he felt
already sure what would be said to him. “Going home on Saturday!” said
the politician; “what, before the education debate, which I so much wanted
you to hear! Arden, I suppose it is clear enough to see what that means. But
must you go because they go? Though you are not in Parliament, you have
a duty to the public too——”
“I go because I am called home on business,” said Edgar, “for no other
reason, I assure you. I have heard from Clare to-day——”

“Oh, ah,” said Lord Newmarch; “of course, we all understand urgent
private affairs. But, Arden, though it does not become me to speak, I wish
you had not meant to marry immediately. I should be more happy to
congratulate you as member for East Lancashire than as Benedict the
married man.”
“The chances are you will never congratulate me as either,” said Edgar,
with a certain wayward pathos which puzzled himself; “I am not going to
marry, and I don’t intend to go into Parliament. I should not be much credit
to you in that way; I should go in for impracticable measures, and call a
spade a spade. Let me tame down first, and get used to parliamentary
language and all the other fictions of life——”
“My dear fellow, I wish you were not so bitter about the fictions of life,”
said Lord Newmarch, shaking his head.
“Bitter!” said Edgar, with a laugh.
“Well, if not bitter, cynical—cynical—perhaps that is a better word. I
have been thinking a great deal about what you said the other day, and I
don’t think there is much in it. Society must be kept up—some sacrifice
must be made to keep up that fine atmosphere—that air so sensitive to
everything that comes into it—that brilliant, witty, refined——”
“Newmarch,” said another young man, lounging up, “where were you
that one couldn’t see you at the Strathfeldsays’ dance the other night? Awful
bore! Never was at anything much worse all my life—the women all frights
and the men all notabilities. Ah, Arden, I never see you anywhere now.
Where has the t’other Arden gone—Arthur Arden—that one used to meet
about? He used to be always with the Lowestofts. Lowestoft wouldn’t stand
it at the last. Deuced bore! Some men are insufferable in that way. Pull you
up short, whether you mean anything or not, and spoil the whole affair.
Been doing anything in the House?—Education Bill, and that sort of thing.
Hang education! What is the good of it? What has it ever done for you or
me?”
“What, indeed!” cried Edgar—a backing which was received with the
warmth it merited.
“Eton and Christchurch are reckoned pretty well,” said their new
companion; “but I don’t know what they ever did for me. And as for those
confounded fellows that never wash and have votes, what do they want with
it? Depend upon it, they are a great deal better without. Teaches them to be

discontented; then teaches you to humbug and tell lies for them to read in
the newspapers. By the way, where are you going to-night? I’ve got some
men coming to dine with me. Will you make one—or, rather, will you make
two, if Arden likes? Then there is that deuced affair on at the Bodmillers’
which I suppose I shall have to look in upon; and the Chromatics are giving
a grand concert, with Squallini and Whiskerando. Little Squallini is worth
listening to, I can tell you. There are heaps of things I never attempt, and
one is, going to musical nights promiscuous, not knowing what you’re to
hear. But the Chromatics know what is what. Going? I shall look out
somebody, and have a rubber till five. These concerts and things are a
confounded bore.”
“Is that your brilliant, witty, refined—— is that the sort of thing we
should make a sacrifice to keep up?” said Edgar, as they went out together.
“What an amount of trouble it has taken to produce him! And now he has to
be kept up at a sacrifice. I should prefer to make a sacrifice to get rid of
him, Newmarch. He is not so witty as his own groom, nor half so useful as
that crossing sweeper——”
“You would find the crossing-sweeper dull, too, if you met him every
day,” said Newmarch. “The fact is, it is not a very good world, but it is the
best we can get; and if a man does as much as he can with it—— You must
get into the House, Arden. I don’t mean to say society is enough for an
energetic man, with a great deal of time on his hands: but my occupations I
hope are solid enough. I have had three or four hours of committees
already; and I am going down to Westminster straight. Of course, it is
pleasant to sit over that little table in the corner of the Thornleighs’
drawing-room. Ah!—that sort of thing is not for me,” said the legislator,
with a sigh.
And Edgar laughed—partly at his friend, partly at himself, partly at the
universal vanity. Lord Newmarch was no Solomon. The country could have
gone on all the same had he, too, gossiped over a tea-table as so many of
the youth of England were doing at that moment with relish as great as
though they had been so many washer-women, and tongues sharpened at
the clubs. England would not have suffered had Lord Newmarch gossiped
too. And Edgar was not much more genuine as he walked with him as far as
Berkeley Square, and then dropped off “to say good-bye to the
Thornleighs,” leaving the liveliest certainty on Lord Newmarch’s mind as to
what were his relations with the family. Nor, perhaps, was Gussy more true,

as she sat and filled out the tea, and saw, with a little thrill, the man coming
in who was to fix her fate. She did not love him any more than he loved her,
and yet, in all likelihood, her life was in his hands. What a strange, aimless
whirl it was in which everybody moved, or seemed to move, as some blind
fate required, and could not stop themselves, nor change the current which
kept drifting them on! The crossing-sweeper was the braver and the more
genuine personage. The mud cleared away before his broom; the road grew
passable where he moved; he had it in his power to make a new passage
wherever he was so minded. At least, so one supposed looking at his
mystery from outside. Perhaps within, the guild of crossing-sweepers has its
tyrannical limitations too.

CHAPTER XXIV.
It was a quiet hour when Edgar made his appearance in the drawing-room
at Berkeley Square. Why this afternoon should have been so still and
domestic and the last so noisy and full of visitors, it is difficult to say. The
girls had been riding in the Park in the morning, “their last ride,” as the
younger ones informed him, with voluble regret. The horses were going off
that evening; the whole house was, as it were, breaking to pieces. Already
half the pretty things—the stands of books and of flowers—had disappeared
from the tables. The girls looked somehow as if their very dresses were
plainer, which was not actually the case. The cloud upon them was only a
moral cloud, consequent upon the knowledge that on Monday they were all
going home.
“And fancy, the opera will go on all the same, and Patti will sing, though
we are away,” said Mary, who was musical.
“There will be just as many dances every night, and all night long, and
we at Thorne!” cried Beatrice. Gussy, who looked down upon them both
from the altitude of two and twenty, shook her head with a certain grandeur
of superior experience.
“Oh, you silly girls! if you had seen as much of it as I have! The opera is
all very well, and so are the dances; but you don’t know how tiresome they
get when you go on and on. Yes; it is my fourth season, Mr. Arden, and I
think I have a right to be tired.”
Lady Augusta gave her daughter a warning look. “The more seasons you
can count the less disposed you will be to speak so very frankly of them,”
she said; “but Mr. Arden has been too much with us not to know what a
chatterbox you are.”
“Yes,” said Edgar; “how good it has been of you to let me be so much
with you. It has made town so much more pleasant to me than it could have
been otherwise; and now I have come to bid you good-bye, though I am
glad to think it will not be for long.”
“To bid us good-bye!” they all cried, with surprise. And Lady Augusta
cast another significant glance over the heads of Mary and Beatrice, who

were too heedless to take any notice, at the daughter whose interests were
more specially concerned.
“Yes,” said Edgar; “Clare has written begging me to go to her directly. I
am going on Saturday. I had no idea of it when I saw you yesterday; and
after all I shall be in Lancashire before you are. I don’t even know why it is
I am sent for by my sovereign Clare.”
Once more a look passed between Lady Augusta and her elder girls.
They did not believe one word of this story. They took it quite simply for
granted that he was doing this to be near them, to be within reach of Gussy.
Gussy herself even was convinced. She had doubted and shaken her head
when the entire household had been persuaded of the fact. But now a little
flush of gratification lighted up her cheeks. She could no longer resist the
conviction that his coming and going depended somehow, as she said
modestly to herself, on “us.”
“It is strange of Clare to send you such a summons,” said Lady Augusta;
“but I daresay she is very lonely, poor child. I do hope we shall see a great
deal more of her at Thorne when we get home. To tell the truth, I am very
glad you are going. I do not like to think of her, still in mourning as she is,
and left in that house all alone.”
“Yes; I have been a little forgetful of Clare, I fear,” Edgar said, without
thought; and the girls, who were now very attentive, made another rapid
comment within themselves all in a breath. He has been thinking so much
of Gussy! How funny it was! How nice to be Gussy, for whose sake a man
“forgot all about” his duties! A little thrill of interest ran through the
assembled family; and even kind Lady Augusta, who had become, as she
herself said, “quite attached” to Edgar, was a little moved by the thought of
what might be coming.
“You are never forgetful of anybody, I am sure,” she said, “unless with a
very strong motive. I don’t like to praise people to their faces; but I never
saw any one less apt to think of himself than you.”
Edgar made no reply to this praise. There was a little pause of
expectation, an occasional hush in the room, which one and another
attempted to break by snatches of conversation, perpetually interrupted.
They can’t expect me to make the plunge before them all, Edgar mused to
himself, with a sense of fun which was very inappropriate to the gravity of
the position. And after all, when he came to think of it, it would be very

difficult to make this plunge. What could he say? Gussy and he had been
upon the easiest, the friendliest terms. He did not see how he could alter
that ground all at once, and assume a vein of high sentiment. There was in
reality so little sentiment in his mind. He was not impassioned; and it
occurred to him all at once that to ask a girl to marry him in this perfectly
calm and humdrum way would not be flattering to the girl. Gussy, no doubt,
would expect something very different. She would expect a lover’s fervour,
the excitement of a man whose happiness for life depended on her Yea or
Nay; and Edgar felt that his happiness did not depend upon it. Altogether, it
was an embarrassing position. Conversation languished in the Thornleigh
drawing-room, and the family gave furtive glances at him, and tried to look
indifferent, and betrayed itself. As for Gussy, she never looked at him at all.
She had given up her tea-making, though she still sat at the table, with the
tray before her, which was a fortunate shield; but her eyes were bent upon
her work, and she was as silent as a mouse in her corner, conscious to her
finger-points, and expectant too.
It was a relief when old Lady Vere came in, and her daughters, who were
much of the same age as Mary and Beatrice, and instantly drew off the
attention of those two sharp-eyed young women. Lady Vere, too, kept Lady
Augusta in occupation, and had something to say to Helena. So that when
Edgar brought her cup back to the tea-table, it was quite natural that he
should glide into the vacant chair, and keep Gussy company. “Are you sorry
to leave town?” he said; and Gussy gave a shy, blushing, trustful glance into
his face, which made him draw his chair a little closer. He was fond of her!
not impassioned, but yet—what a dear little girl she was!
“Sorry for some things,” Gussy said, “but not so sorry as Mary and
Beatrice are. One’s first season is always delightful; one feels as if it would
all last for ever.”
“Do you? I think I have that feeling too, but only because it is so dreary,
so flat, so banal, always the same thing over again,” said Edgar. “I think life
must be waiting for us—real life, not this dull routine—at home.”
“Yes, perhaps,” said Gussy faintly—for every word he said seemed to be
more and more weighted with meaning. He did not say absolutely, “the real
life I speak of is our life together, the existence in which we two shall be
one,” but could anything be more clear than that he meant it so? Her voice
sank in spite of herself. Gussy was not in the least impassioned either, but

what she thought was—“How dearly he must love me, to be able to give up
town and everything for my sake! Poor dear boy, that is all he is thinking
of; and oh, I am not so good as he is. I am thinking of a great many other
things besides him.”
Thus, with the very best motives in the world, they went on deceiving
each other. Not much was said over the tea-table except such broken scraps
of talk as this—talk which meant next to nothing, and yet was supposed by
the listeners on both sides to mean a great deal. “Ada is anxious to get back
to her schools and her poor people,” Gussy said. “She is so good! She has
done nothing but work for the children even here. People ought to be happy,
don’t you think, that give themselves up like that, and think only of others?
They must get to be happy because they are so good.”
“I hope so,” said Edgar, with a certain doubtfulness; “but, above all,
those who are more happy should be good to her. One like her seems a
sacrifice for others, securing their happiness. I mean——”
“Oh, I know what you mean,” said Gussy, clasping her hands; “and
indeed it is no trouble to be good to Ada; we all love her so. Sometimes I
feel as if it would be wicked to be very happy while she sits there——”
And they both turned to look at the sister who sat cheerful in the corner
making little frocks. She was laughing at the moment, showing one of the
Miss Veres how to shape a little sleeve. Gussy, who believed herself to
stand on the very threshold of so different a world, felt her heart overflow
with love and compassion. “Dear Ada,” she said to herself; only schools
and poor children’s frocks for Ada, while she herself was to have every
delight. Edgar’s feelings were different. If circumstances were so to arrange
themselves as that he should be Ada’s brother, he would be very good to
her. She would find in him a friend who would never alter, who would stand
by her steadily, doing all that brother could do to make her lonely path more
easy. Involuntarily there rose before Edgar the vision of an after-life, with
new interests in it and new duties; a new race of Ardens curiously different
from the old, a warm household place for Ada and for everybody, a centre
of domestic kindness. That was what the house of a country gentleman, the
natural head of a community, ought to be. He smiled over the imagination,
and yet it came naturally and pleasantly to his mind. Gussy, who was not
more than a pretty girl now, would be the sweetest, kindest, most charming
matron—like her own mother, but younger, and prettier, and more sweet;

and the house would be full of pleasant tumult and society. He did not quite
clearly identify himself, but that was, perhaps, because of the laugh that
gradually broadened in his eyes at the thought. And to think that this arose
simply out of Ada’s face in the corner, and the impulse of making life
brighter for her! Then he roused up, and saw that Gussy was looking the
same way, and that her pretty eyes were full of tears. How sweet, and good,
and tender-hearted she was! They were women whom a man could trust his
honour and happiness to without a doubt or fear. Never surely was there a
stranger wooing. When their eyes met, Gussy blushed, and so did Edgar.
Had they both been seeing in a vision the house that was not yet, the unborn
faces, the unlighted fire? But then more visitors came in, and more tea was
wanted, and nothing decisive could be said then and there. “I suppose you
are going to the Lowestofts’ to-night,” Lady Augusta said, as he took leave
of her; for she, too, saw clearly that nothing could possibly be settled in the
drawing-room, under the eyes of all the family. “So it need not be good-bye
yet. Of course we shall see you there.”
And thus everything drew on towards the evident termination. If Edgar
had been consulted on the subject before hand, he would have said that to
enact his love drama, or at least its decisive scene, at a ball, would have
been the very last thing in the world he was likely to do—just as it would
have seemed absolutely impossible to him, had he foreseen it, to forestall
love in the way which he was doing, and put affection in its place. But he
did not seem to have any will of his own at all in the matter. He was
pleasantly drawn on by a tide which carried him towards Gussy, which
made her inevitable, and his position unmistakeable. Not only was it
expected of him, but he expected himself to take this step. The only thing he
was doubtful of was how to do it. He could not possibly say to a girl so
charming and worthy of all homage that he was very fond of her, and yet
did not love her in the least as a lover should. If he did, it would be an
insult, not such a lovesuit as could be accepted. Therefore, he would be
obliged to put aside his true feeling, and produce an utterly false one, out of
compliment to her; and how was he to do it? All the rest he could do
willingly, pleasantly, with perfect consent of his mind and affections; but
how was he to be false to her, to pretend to feelings which were not his?
This occupied his mind all the rest of the afternoon, and gave him the
greatest possible trouble. And at the same time it was evident that the crisis
had come, and that he must speak. He sent her a bouquet as the first step,

which was very easy and pleasant. If it had been diamonds and rubies
instead of flowers, he would have done it with still greater goodwill. He
would give her anything, everything—Arden itself, and his liberty and his
life; but how was he to get himself up to a lover’s pitch of excitement, and
offer her his heart?

CHAPTER XXV.
The Lowestofts’ ball was a very nice ball, everybody said. There were a
great many people there. Indeed, everybody was there: the stairs were
crowded and all the passages, and the dancers had scarcely room to move.
To make your way up or down was almost as bad as going to Court. The
way in which trains were damaged and trimmings torn off would have tried
the temper of a saint. Nevertheless, the ladies bore it like heroines, smiling
blandly, and protesting that it did not matter, even at the moment when their
most cherished lace was being rent under their eyes. The mistress of the
house stood at the top of the stairs, ready to drop with exhaustion, but
grinning horribly a ghastly smile at everybody who approached her. A
Royal Duke had come in for half-an-hour, and a German Prince, whom all
the Lowestofts and all their friends treated with supreme contempt when
they spoke of him; but yet, vis-a-vis of the Morning Post, were too proud
and happy to see at their ball. Edgar Arden was one of those who traversed
the crowd with the least ennui; but he could not refrain from making those
remarks upon it which he was in the habit of making concerning the natural
history and habits of the world of fashion. Edgar remarked that only a very
few people looked really happy; and these were either the men and women
who had some special love affair, innocent or otherwise, on hand, and had
been able to appropriate the individual who interested them with that safety
which belongs to a crowd; or else those upward climbers seeking
advancement, to whom every new invitation into “the best society” was an
object of as much elation as a successful battle. These two classes of
persons rejoiced with a troubled joy; but the rest of the guests were either
indifferent, or bored, or discontented. They had come because everybody
was coming; they had come because they were invited; and it was part of
the routine of life to go. Rage was boiling in their souls over their torn lace;
or, with a sigh from the bottom of their hearts, they were dreaming of their
favourite chair at the club, and all its delights. They said the same things
over and over to the same people, whom, probably in the morning in the
Row, or in the afternoon at half-a-dozen places, they had met and said the
same things to before. Edgar stood for a long time half-way down the stair,
and helped the ladies who were pushing their way up. He was waiting for

Lady Augusta and her party, who were very late. He was waiting without
any excitement, but with a little alarm, wondering if he could say anything
to Gussy in the midst of such a crowd, or if still a breathing-time would be
given to him. He did not want to elude that moment, but only it was so
difficult to do it, so hard to know what to say. “That young Mr. Arden is
very nice. I don’t think I should ever have got upstairs without him,” said
more than one substantial chaperon. “He is waiting for the Thornleighs,”
the daughters would say. Everybody had decided Edgar’s fate for him.
Some people said it had been all settled before they came up from the
country. And there could not be the least doubt that, if Edgar had let the
season pass without saying anything to Gussy, he would have been
concluded by everybody to have used her very ill.
And a great many speculations passed through Edgar’s mind as he stood
there and waited. Sometimes he witnessed such a meeting as ought to have
been in store for himself. He saw the youth and maiden meet who were to
get to the real climax in their romance by means of the Lowestofts’ ball, and
wondered within himself whether the outside world could see the same
glow in his eyes which he could see in those of the other lover, or whether
the same delightful atmosphere of consciousness enveloped Gussy as that
which seemed to enclose the other girl in a rosy cloud. And he saw other
pairs meet, not of youths and maidens; he saw gleams of strange fire which
did not warm but burn; he saw the vacant looks of the mass, the factitious
flutter of delight with which the dull crowd recognised its acquaintances.
Lord Newmarch came up to him when he had occupied this perch for some
time. “What are you doing here, of all places in the world? Are you going or
coming? Oh, I see; you are waiting for the Thornleighs,” he said; “they are
generally in good time for a ball——”
“I am waiting because it is amusing here,” said Edgar, careful even now
that Gussy at least should not be discussed.
“Amusing!—the amusement must be in you, so I will stay by you,” said
Lord Newmarch; “probably some of it may come my way. What an odd
fellow you are, to expect to be amused wherever you go, like a bumpkin at
a fair! By the way, that reminds me, Arden, the people have a faculty for
being amused which is wonderful; they are ready for it at all times and
seasons, you know, not like us. It is a faculty which ought to be made use of
for their improvement. I don’t see why they shouldn’t be educated in spite
of themselves. The drama, for instance; now the drama has lost its hold on

us—to us the play is a bore. We go to the opera to see each other, not to
hear anything. But the people are all agog for anything in the shape of a
play. What do you think? If the stage has any vigour left in it, instead of
getting up sensation dramas for cads and shopkeepers——”
“But cads and shopkeepers are part of the people,” said Edgar.
“No; that is not what I mean; I mean the real lower classes—the working
men—our masters that are to be. How could they learn patriotism, not to
say good sense, better than by means of Shakespeare? Poetry of the highest
class is adapted to every capacity. What is secondary may have to be
explained and broken down, but the highest——”
“I think I must ask you to let me pass,” said Edgar, seeing the shadow of
Lady Augusta’s nose (which was prominent) on the wall close to the door.
She was bringing in her daughters against a stream which was flowing out,
and the struggle was very difficult, and demanded the greatest care.
“Oh, I suppose I am not wanted any longer,” said Newmarch; “but,
Arden, look here, I hope you mean to let me go to you for a day or two in
September—eh? not for the partridges. Wait one moment. I should be glad
of a quiet opportunity to speak to you by yourself——”
“Another time,” said Edgar, extricating himself as best he could from the
crowd.
“Wait one moment! I am free from the 20th of August. I will go to you
as soon as you like—you know why I ask. Arden, remember I count upon
your good offices—and then if my influence can be of any use to you——”
“Yes, precisely,” said Edgar, swinging himself free. Lord Newmarch
looked after him with a little metaphorical lifting up of hands and eyes.
How simple the boy must be!—falling a hopeless victim to Gussy
Thornleigh, his next door neighbour, when he had, so to speak, all England
to choose from; for the suit of Arden of Arden was not one which was likely
to fail, unless he fixed his fancy very high indeed. Lord Newmarch could
not but reflect that in some things Arden had very greatly the advantage
even of himself—there were so many people still who had a prejudice in
favour of grandfathers, and his own grandfather, though the first Earl, could
not, he was aware, bear discussing. Gussy Thornleigh, he reflected, was a
very fortunate woman. She would have nothing, or next to nothing. Her
sister Helena was one who, under more favourable circumstances, would
have attracted Lord Newmarch himself; but he could not afford to throw

himself away upon a girl who had nothing, and whose connections even
were not of a kind to bring advancement. Nothing could be better than her
family, no doubt; but then she had a quantity of brothers who would have to
be pushed on in the world, and no doubt the sisters’ husbands would be
called upon for aid and influence. Arden was the very sort of man to suffer
himself to be so called on. He would be ready to help them and to get them
out of all their scrapes. It was he who would be looked to when anything
was the matter. In short, he was just the kind of man to marry a girl who
was one of a large family. Lord Newmarch reflected that he himself was not
so. He wanted all his influence, all his money, everything his position gave
him, for himself or, at least, for his brothers. He even paused to ask himself
whether, in case he should marry Clare Arden, he might not be appealed to
as a connexion of the family for appointments, &c., for some of those
Thornleigh boys. But Clare, he reflected, was not a good-natured fool like
Edgar. She was one who knew what was due to a man’s position, and that
there were few who had anything to spare. Accordingly, he felt easy in his
mind respecting that very far off danger. It was Clare who was the proper
match for himself; and with a little shrug of his shoulders Lord Newmarch
watched Edgar make his way through the crowd to where Lady Augusta,
caught in an eddy, with all her train of girls, was struggling to get in, against
the almost irresistible force of the torrent going out. Certainly, to come up
to town for the purpose of making love to your next neighbour in the
country was a waste of means indeed.
Meanwhile, Lady Augusta had seized on Edgar’s arm with a sense of
relief which made her heart glow with grateful warmth. It was another
evidence of what a good son he would be, what a help in need. “I am so
thankful to see you,” she cried. “We are a little late, I know; but I never
dreamt that people would be going so soon. There is a great ball in Eaton
Square, I believe, to-night, given by some of those odious nouveaux riches;
that is where everybody is flocking to.” This was said loud enough to catch
the ear of the crowd which was going out, and which had whirled Lady
Augusta with it, and disordered the sweep of her train. She held Edgar fast
while she made her way upstairs. She could not have done it without him,
she said, and mourned audibly over her unfriended condition in the ear of
her future son-in-law. “Harry promised to be looking out for us,” she said;
“but I suppose he is dancing, or something else that amuses him; and Mr.
Thornleigh is never any use to us socially. He is always at the House.”

“Does he go down to Thorne with you?” asked Edgar, meaning nothing
in particular; but at present every word he spoke was marked and noted. No
doubt, he wanted to make sure of being able to communicate with Gussy’s
father at once.
“No, he stays in town,” said Lady Augusta, “for a few weeks longer;”
and then she added, with an attempt at carelessness, “I am the family
business-man, Mr. Arden. We have always one mind about the children and
their concerns. He says it saves him so much trouble, and that without my
help he could never do anything. It is pleasant when one’s husband thinks
so, who, of course, knows one’s weaknesses best of all. Oh, what a business
it is getting upstairs! Gussy, keep close to me, darling. Ada, I hope you are
not feeling faint. Dear, dear, surely there must be bad management
somewhere! I think I never saw such a crush in a private house.”
Lady Lowestoft was nearer the top of the stair than usual, and took this
criticism, which she had overheard, for a compliment. “A great number of
our friends have been so good as to come to us,” she said. “Dear Lady
Augusta, how late you are! I fear the dear girls will scarcely get any
dancing before supper. Did you meet the Duke as you came in? He is
looking so well. It was very kind of him to come so early. I really must
scold you for being a little late.”
“What a fool that woman is,” Lady Augusta whispered in Edgar’s ear.
“She very nearly compromised herself last season with your cousin Arthur
Arden. He was never out of the house. A man without a penny, and whose
character is so thoroughly well known! And then for one of those silly
women who are really silly, a hundred other women get the blame of it,
which is very hard, I think. Helena is always talking of such things, and it
makes one think.”
Thus Edgar was appropriated for a long time, until he had found a seat
for Lady Augusta, and had placed Ada (who did not dance) by her side.
When he had time to disengage himself, he saw both Gussy and Helena
whirling about among the dancers; for they were popular girls, and always
had partners. Thus the whole evening went past, and he found no
opportunity for any explanation. Had he been able to monopolise Gussy’s
attention, and lead her away to a moderately-quiet corner, no doubt he
would have delivered himself of what he had to say. But then it was not so
very urgent. Had it been very urgent, of course he could have found the

ways and means. He had one dance with her, but nothing could be said
then; and though he proposed a walk into the conservatory, fate, in the
shape of another partner, who carried her off triumphantly, interposed. And
what could a man do more? He had been perfectly willing to make the full
plunge, and in the meantime he watched over the whole family as if he had
been their brother, and put Lady Augusta into her carriage afterwards, never
really leaving them all the evening. If this was not to affichér himself, it
would be hard to tell what more he could do. He held Gussy’s hand after he
put her in, and said something about calling next day. “Don’t, please,”
Gussy had whispered hurriedly; “come when we are at Thorne. I know we
shall all be at sixes and sevens to-morrow, and no time to talk.” She, too,
understood now quite calmly and frankly that this next visit must be more
important than an afternoon call, and he pressed her hand as he whispered
good-bye, feeling disposed to say to her, “What a dear, kind, reasonable girl
you are; how well we shall understand each other, even though——” But he
did not say this, more especially the “even though——” And he stood on
the pavement and watched them drive away with a sensation of relief. He
had quite made up his mind by this time, and did not intend to defer the
crisis a moment longer than was necessary; but still, on the whole, he was
pleased to feel that, whatever might happen afterwards, he was going back
to Arden a free man.

CHAPTER XXVI.
“Come into my dressing-room before you go to bed,” Lady Augusta
whispered in her daughter’s ear. The sisters were in the habit of holding
their own private assemblies at that confidential moment, and the three
elder ones were just preparing for a consultation in Ada’s room when Gussy
received this summons. Of course she obeyed it dutifully, with her pretty
hair hanging about her shoulders, in a pretty white dressing-gown, all gay
with ribbons and embroidery. “I know mamma is going to ask me ever so
many questions, and I have nothing to tell her,” she said, pouting, as she left
Ada and Helena. But Lady Augusta was very gentle in her questioning. “I
think your hair is thicker than it used to be, my darling,” she said, taking the
golden locks in her hand with fond admiration. “Don’t crêper more than
you can help, for I always think it spoils the hair. Yours is more like what
mine used to be than any of the others, Gussy. Helena’s is like your papa’s;
but my hair used to be just your colour. Alas! it has fallen off sadly now.”
“Your hair is a great deal prettier than mine,” said Gussy, putting her
caressing arm round her mother’s neck. “I like that silver shade upon it.
Hair gets so sweet when it gets grey—one loves it so. If you had not
thought so much about us all, mamma dear, and had so many worries, you
would not have had a white thread. I know it is all for us.”
“Hush! my dear,” said Lady Augusta; “you are all very good children. I
have not had half so many worries as most people. It is in the family. The
Hightons all grow grey early. You were looking very nice to-night. That
blue becomes you; I always like you best in blue. Did you dance with Edgar
Arden more than once, Gussy? I could not quite make out——”
“Only once, mamma.”
“How was that? He was waiting for us to come in. I suppose you were
engaged to half-a-dozen people before you got there. I don’t like you to do
that. If they don’t come for you at the proper moment you are kept from
dancing altogether, and look as if you were neglected; and if they do come,
probably somebody else has made his appearance whom you would like
better. I don’t approve of engaging yourself so long in advance.”

“But one goes to dance,” said Gussy, with humility; “and to tell the truth,
mamma, Mr. Arden likes looking after you quite as much as dancing with
me. He likes to see that you are comfortable, and have some one pleasant to
talk to, and don’t want for anything. And I like him for it!” the girl cried,
fervently. “He is of more use to you than Harry is. I like him because he is
so fond of you.”
“Nonsense, dear!” said Lady Augusta, with a pleased smile. “He is good
to me on your account. And you must not say anything against Harry. Harry
is always a dear boy; but he has a number of friends, and he knows I don’t
expect him to give up his own pleasure. Yes; Edgar Arden is very nice; I
don’t deny I am getting quite fond of him. Did he—had you any particular
conversation with him, my darling, to-night?”
“No, mamma,” said Gussy, with her eyes cast down, and a rising colour
on her cheeks.
“Or perhaps he is coming to-morrow? Did he say anything about coming
to-morrow?” said Lady Augusta, with a little anxiety in her tone.
“He asked me if he might, but I said no. I thought we would be in such
confusion—everything packing up, and all our shopping to do, and so much
bother—and then probably when he came nobody at home. And you know,
mamma, we shall meet again so soon—next week,” said Gussy,
apologetically. As she spoke she began to feel that perhaps that little bit of
maidenly reluctance had been a mistake; and Lady Augusta shook her head.
“My dear, I don’t think putting off is ever good,” she said. “When you
have lived as long as I have you will know upon what nothings the greatest
changes may turn. If he had come to-morrow, one needed no ghost to tell us
what would have happened—but next week is a different thing, and the
country is a different thing from town. There are seven miles between
Arden and Thorne—there is Clare at the other end to hold him back—there
are a thousand things; whereas, the present moment, you know—there is
nothing like the present moment in all such affairs.”
“If he cared so little for me,” cried Gussy, indignant, “as to be kept back
by seven miles—or even by Clare——”
“My dear, that is not the question,” said her mother. “He has been with
us here every day, but he can’t ride over to Thorne every day. He will find
business waiting for him, and his visitors will begin to come, and Clare—
without meaning any harm—I am sure Clare would never put herself in

opposition to you; she is a great deal too proud for that—but without
meaning it she will make engagements for him, she will expect him to
attend to her a little—and it is quite natural she should. I am very sorry you
did not let him come. For my own part I should have liked to see him again.
I am growing quite fond of him, Gussy. He is the sort of young man whom
one can put such confidence in. I should have liked to ask his advice about
Phil at Harrow. I should have liked—but of course it cannot be helped now.
I think I will ask them both to come and spend a week with us at Thorne.”
“Mamma!” cried Gussy, with a violent blush. “Oh, don’t please; fancy
inviting a man—any man—for the express purpose—— Oh, please, for my
sake, don’t do such a thing as that!”
“Such a thing as what?” asked Lady Augusta, gravely. “Because you
happen to have a little feeling on the subject, that is not to prevent me, I
hope, from doing my duty to my nearest neighbours. Clare Arden has not
paid us a visit since she went into mourning. And she really ought not to be
encouraged to go on wearing black and shutting herself up in this absurd
way. I will write and invite them to-morrow. Don’t you see, autumn is
approaching, and of course he has asked quantities of people—young men
always do the first season, when they feel they have a house all to
themselves. No, my dear, don’t say anything. I know more of the world than
you do, and I know there is nothing so perilous as letting such a thing drag
on. He had better either ask you at once, or make it quite plain that he is not
going to ask you; and much as I like him, Gussy, if this is not decided
directly I shall certainly not invite him any more.”
“Mamma, you make me so ashamed of myself,” said Gussy. “If you ask
him to Thorne for such a purpose I know I shall not be able to look at him. I
will not be civil to him—I could not—so it will do more harm than good.”
“I am not afraid that you will be uncivil,” said Lady Augusta, with a
smile; “but it was very foolish of you to say he was not to come. I can’t
think how you could do it. Sometimes, it is true, it is better for a man not to
think he is too distinctly understood. Sometimes—— But never mind, my
dear, I see it is I who must manage matters now. Go and put up your hair,
and go to bed——”
“But, oh, mamma, dear!” cried Gussy, with her arms round her mother’s
neck. “Don’t! How could I ever speak to him when I knew—— How could
I ever look him in the face?”

“I hope you know how to conduct yourself towards all your papa’s
guests,” said Lady Augusta, with dignity. “If you don’t, I should feel that I
must have brought you up very badly. I hear your papa’s step coming along
the corridor. Good night, my darling! Go to bed, and don’t think any more
of it; and be sure you don’t let Angelique crêper your hair.”
Thus dismissed, Gussy sped along the passage, and rushed in, breathless
and indignant, yet not so indignant as she looked, into Ada’s room, where
her sisters were waiting for her. “Only fancy!” she cried, throwing herself
into the nearest chair. “Only think what mamma is going to do! Because I
would not let him come here to-morrow, when we will all be in such
confusion, she is going to write and ask the Ardens to Thorne! I shall never
be able to look him in the face. I shall feel he knows exactly what is meant
—— Oh! to think a man should be able to suppose one expects—— He will
think it is my doing—he will imagine I want him. Oh, Ada! what shall I do
——”
“Hush, dear, hush!” said Ada, who was the consoler of the house; while
Helena, in her rôle of indignant womanhood, took up Gussy’s strain.
“He will think women are all exactly the same—that is what he will
think—ready to compass sea and land for the sake of a settlement,” cried
Helena. If you loved him it would not be so bad—or if he thought you
loved him; but it is for the settlement—it is because your trade is to get
married. Don’t you see, now, the justice of all I have been saying? If you
could learn a profession like a man, men would never dare to think so. But
the worst is, it is true. All that mamma thinks of is to get you settled at
Arden—all she thinks of is to get you provided for—all she cares——”
“Helena!” cried Gussy, with a burst of tears. “I won’t hear you say a
single word against mamma.”
“Hush—hush, both of you children!” said gentle Ada. “Nell, you must
not storm; and, Gussy dear, I can’t bear you to cry. What mamma does
always comes out right. It may not be just what one could desire, nor what
one would do one’s self. But it always turns out better than one expects. Of
course, she wants to see you provided for—isn’t it her duty? She wants you
to be happy and well off, and have the good of your life as she has. Nobody
can say mamma has not done her duty. Sometimes it seems a little hard to
others, but we all know——”

“Oh, you dear Ada!” cried both her sisters, taking the comforter between
them, and weeping over her. But she, who was the martyr of the family, did
not weep. She gave them a kiss, first one and then the other, and smiled at
their girlish ready tears.
“I have never said very much about it,” she said; “but I think I know
Edgar Arden. He will not think anything disagreeable about mamma’s
invitation, if she sends it. He is not that kind of man; he is not always
finding people out, like some of Harry’s friends. He would not do anything
that is nasty himself; and he would never suspect anybody else. It would not
come into his head. And then he is fond of mamma and all of us. I am quite
sure, as sure as if I had put it to the proof, that he would do anything for me
if I were to ask him—not to speak of Gussy. And if that is really what he
means——”
“I don’t think you think it is,” said Gussy, with a little flush of pride. “I
am sure you don’t think it is! Don’t be afraid to speak quite plainly. You
don’t suppose I care——”
“But I do suppose you care,” said Ada, giving her sister another
sympathetic kiss. “We all care. I am fond of him, too. I should like to be
quite sure he was to be my brother, Gussy—— and I should like, for his
sake, to make sure that you too——”
“Oh, it does not matter what a girl feels,” said Gussy, pettishly, waving
her pretty hair about her face, and concealing her looks behind it. “We have
to marry somebody—and then there are so many of us. Mamma says I am
not to crêper my hair; but if I don’t, how can I ever make a show as
everybody does? She would not like to see me different from other girls.
Oh, me! I wish I was not a girl, obliged to take such trouble about how I
look and what people will think; and obliged to wonder and bother and
worry everybody about what some man is going to say next time I meet
him. Oh, I cannot tell you how I hate men!”
“I don’t hate them,” said Helena. “Why should we? Treat them simply as
your fellow-creatures. They have got to live in the world, and so have we.
The only thing is that we need not try to make each other miserable. There
is room enough for both of us. If they will only let me use my faculties, I
will take care not to interfere with them. I am not afraid, for my part, to
meet them upon equal terms——”

Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.
More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge
connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.
Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and
personal growth every day!
ebookbell.com

Equipping Technical Communicators For Social Justice Work Theories Methodologies And Pedagogies Rebecca Walton Godwin Y Agboka

About This Presentation

Slide Content

Tags

Categories

Download

Quick Actions

Statistics

Related Slideshows

Equipping Technical Communicators For Social Justice Work Theories Methodologies And Pedagogies Rebecca Walton Godwin Y Agboka

About This Presentation

Slide Content

Slide 1

Slide 2

Slide 3

Slide 6

Slide 8

Slide 9

Slide 10

Slide 12

Slide 13

Slide 14

Slide 15

Slide 16

Slide 18

Slide 19

Slide 20

Slide 21

Slide 22

Slide 23

Slide 24

Slide 25

Slide 26

Slide 27

Slide 28

Slide 30

Slide 31

Slide 32

Slide 33

Slide 34

Slide 35

Slide 36

Slide 37

Slide 38

Slide 39

Slide 40

Slide 41

Slide 42

Slide 43

Slide 44

Slide 45

Slide 46

Slide 47

Slide 48

Slide 49

Slide 50

Slide 51

Slide 52

Slide 53

Slide 54

Slide 55

Slide 56

Slide 57

Slide 58

Slide 59

Slide 60

Slide 61

Slide 62

Slide 63

Slide 64

Slide 65

Slide 66

Slide 67

Slide 68

Slide 69

Slide 70

Slide 71

Slide 72

Slide 73

Slide 74

Slide 75

Slide 76

Slide 77

Slide 78

Slide 79

Slide 80

Slide 81

Slide 82

Slide 83