Thesis Series Part 1: Survival Before Scholarship

Episode 30 of the Haffbreedz Podcast podcast, hosted by Gee-Unit, titled "Thesis Series Part 1: Survival Before Scholarship" was published on January 26, 2026 and runs 79 minutes.

January 26, 2026 ·79m · Haffbreedz Podcast

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Summary

Send a text Before there was a thesis, there was survival. In this opening episode, Fira shares the story of how she arrived at graduate school—not through a carefully planned academic path, but through years of navigating broken systems, community responsibility, loss, and improvisation. From teaching on the reservation, to moving to Las Cruces after her mother’s passing, to entering a graduate program without Indigenous mentorship, this episode traces the conditions that made the thes...

Episode Description

Send a text

Before there was a thesis, there was survival. In this opening episode, Fira shares the story of how she arrived at graduate school—not through a carefully planned academic path, but through years of navigating broken systems, community responsibility, loss, and improvisation.

From teaching on the reservation, to moving to Las Cruces after her mother’s passing, to entering a graduate program without Indigenous mentorship, this episode traces the conditions that made the thesis necessary. This conversation is not about individuals or institutions, but about patterns, absence, and what it means to build your own container when support disappears.

This is the beginning—before the language, before the defense, before the scholarship.

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