October 24 th , 2022, in O’ahu So… I am here. I have accomplished about nine interviews in the span of four days and have another seven on deck before I leave. Maybe more. In my research preparing for this visit, I have read up on the preservation of Hawaiian...

My Thinq Fellowship has afforded me the privilege to explore what pedagogy means to me and how it can be culturally sustaining. Thanks to a grant from CU Denver’s Office of Research Services and my Thinq course buyout this year, I have the time and means to explore culturally sustaining...

How do we get students to think? How do we get students to Thinq? It is so hard to remember not knowing all that we know. As a course progresses and builds on previous knowledge, it is hard early in the semester to remember that most of the students have not been exposed to much of the information and concepts yet. All that information that we have swirling in our brains. We have been making connections between these topics for years. That is why we can teach because we understand what is important and what is not important. But students don’t have this knowledge or experience yet. And my struggle is with how we get them there. How do we balance the information component with the understanding and thinking component?

I first joined ThinqStudio in 2019 as a Faculty Fellow. When I applied, I didn’t understand how profound of an impact Thinq would end up having on me. To be honest, at the time, I wasn’t even very clear about what Thinq was or stood for. I had applied because I was angry at higher education and hated how I felt pretending to exist within it. But, something within me told me to pursue an opportunity with ThinqStudio.

The higher education literature abounds with buzzwords. … I suggest a commonly overlooked and underutilized strategy to better achieve our aspirational objectives in academia: assuming a playful pedagogy.

I recently asked my mom what I was like as a kid, you know, before the world attempted to impose its limiting narratives on me. She said: “You were obsessed with soccer, you were always very silly, and you just loved to be around people.” I guess not much has...