User Profile

By implementing global disability rights work through a CDS [Critical Disability Studies] lens we are able to frame such issues as social justice initiatives and encourage teachers and disability rights activists to think about inclusive education and fighting for disability rights as a series of decolonizing actions and as a form of activism.

— The Future of Inclusive Education by Valentina Migliarini, Brent C. Elder (Page 13)

"The savage ruined it," says Florence, repeating the translated phrase from the family portrait.

"One of those," I say. Of course we would find a racist's cache here. Hardly anything else is ever preserved in history. Even this single photograph of my great-grandmother as a child hiding in the curtains was branded.

— She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran (Page 137)

What is it like to open your eyes and see your world completely gone wrong? The invaders emerging from the mist like pale ghosts, taking and building, and taking. Latching on and draining you dry. Then calling you a savage. It doesn't take a genius to parse that word form the handwriting on the photograph. Bà Cố and Cam are incidental relics. The racism is not subtle once you start to look.

— She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran (Page 133)

The woman from the window sits at the center of this photograph, surrounded by her family. Her eyes are sharp and deep-set, the angle of her nose narrow. Her family blends into the background drapes. They'd taken it in our dining room, the hint of wooded wallpaper scratching at the edges.

Her dress is a beautiful lace and buttoned at the front with a wide sash. Her hat is even nicer, with a variety of flowers. A girl stands to her right, and the husband towers on the left, hand on their son. The kids are obviously twins, both wearing their mother's dark line for mouths and deep eyes.

My gut tells me she's the Lady of Many Tongues. Marion Dumont and her husband, Roger. The ones Alma told us about. Loopy handwriting stains the back—1925, le sauvage l'a ruineé. A visceral dislike rips through me.

— She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran (Page 132)

In rising excitement and volume, Alma says, "Roger Dumont was key in establishing order in this region, but his wife, Marion, was a very accomplished linguist in her time. Latin, German, et cetera, all the great languages, and then of course she had to come here with her husband. She became quite good at Vietnamese too. It's a bit unusual for spouses to come along, but she was an absolute asset to her husband. She was known as the Lady of Many Tongues."

Here's my treasure trove of highly specific and obscure information. Ba's fist closes tightly around his chopsticks, ready to snap. Right, Roger and Marion employed our family. We were here first, and yet where are we in history books?

Alma can't be stopped now, judging by the animated look in her eyes. "Marion held many parties and meetings in this house," she says. "Entertaining officers on leave, translating documents where needed, of course. Geniuses hardly have their equals, so she never had any reason or want to actually associate outside of this house. Unfortunate though. She could've been a great teacher to the locals."

Because I need to know for myself how no one cared for the way my family tended the hydrangeas that live until this day, I ask, "Did someone else live here?"

"No, not really," she says slowly. "Roger and Marion had children, and personal attendants—a house as big as this needs care—but they were very much distinguished pioneers and masters of their hearth."

The woman has her PhD in colonization, but that doesn't mean I'm happy she knows more than me—however fractured that knowledge.

— She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran (Page 120 - 121)

We have used CDS as one way to connect segregated education practices to larger systems of oppression like capitalism, globalization, neo/post/colonialism, and neoliberalism.

— The Future of Inclusive Education by Valentina Migliarini, Brent C. Elder (Page 13)

Thus, by exploring the affordances of DisCrit for inclusive policies and practices in different contexts, we attempt to recognize the humanity of historically marginalized communities in the United States and globally in a more nuanced and accurate sense.

— The Future of Inclusive Education by Valentina Migliarini, Brent C. Elder (Page 11)

Sleep paralysis, my brain repeats, groggy, as if that is a better worry. It can be caused by any number of reasons, such as a poor sleep schedule, not actually sleeping, stress, and sleeping on your back.

I am a high-achieving teenager whose ex-best friend is the only person who knows she's bisexual and dealing with the return of family shit; a recent high school graduate hustling for money she so doesn't have to burden her hard-working refugee mother; and someone who has reliably slept on her back since infancy.

"Thank you, internet. Very helpful." I aggressively clear the browser history.

— She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran (Page 34)