Synergies, not Thorns with Jeania Ree Moore, Dr. Candace Borders, and Alison H. Kibbe

In today’s episode, I talk with a truly special group of scholars, Candace Borders, Alison Kibe, and Jeania Ree Moore. They met as Graduate Writing Fellows and connected by giving each other feedback on their writing. While they share academic fields and methodologies, their ethics of care and investment in each other’s work allowed them to try out a new form of peer-review group, as “group consultations.” Conjoining the structure and duration of a peer-review writing group with the feedback process of an individual consultation, their group offers a unique model that can be formed by grad students who share a department and discipline. Sharing a discipline or department can have its’ challenges with respect to going “too deep” into the content, possible competition, and uneven experiences with working with advisors and gaining access to resources. Our guests offer a pathway based on Black feminist writing practices and theory that can mediate these challenges to offer a truly collaborative, compassionate, and accountable group writing and feedback model. Jeania Ree Moore is a writer, clergyperson, and interdisciplinary scholar of theology, religion, and African American studies. She is a PhD candidate in African American Studies and Religious Studies at Yale University, where her research draws on theology, ethics, and related disciplines to engage a range of sites in Black history and culture. Alison H Kibbe is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies at the College of Charleston. She is a scholar, multidisciplinary artist, and cultural organizer. In her scholarly work, Alison specializes in critical food studies, Black geographies and Black mobilities, and cultural production across the Caribbean and African Diaspora. Candace Borders is an interdisciplinary scholar, educator, and curator. Her research explores the intersections of race, gender, class, and the urban Midwest, with particular attention to role of Black women’s activism in shaping the urban landscape. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Center for the Humanities, Washington University in St. Louis and received her PhD in American Studies and African American Studies from Yale University.