Identities
Terms

In our program, we refer to embodiment to talk about how our bodies (physical, biological, psychological, emotional) influence our experiences in the world and therefore also our writing identities and practices. Our embodiment is always influenced by how we feel and how people perceive us in the world in relation to privileged positionality, all of which has consequences for us as writers.

Embodied identities is one way to describe the identities that we are born into or assigned: races, ethnicities, genders, sexes, sexualities, disabilities, socioeconomic classes, ages, religions, national origins, and so many more. We know it’s important to recognize and understand how our embodied identities influence our collective and individual beliefs and actions as writers in the world.

We also understand that there are other socialized identities that we choose for ourselves in the world based on who we are, what we like, and what we want to participate in: our hobbies, our disciplines, our likes and dislikes, any activity that we opt into for any reason. All of our social identities shape us as writers and influence how we understand complex practices like writing research and genre research.

​Intersectional identities refers to the fact that people with multiple marginalized embodied social identities (examples: race and gender; national origin and disability) experience discrimination and inequity that is invisible if we are not paying attention to the intersections of multiple identities. Intersectional discrimination influences people’s writing identities and practices because it influences embodiment, or people’s ways of living, learning, and being in the world.