Parallels, Grief, and Creative Intellectual Development in the Search for Meaning
Abstract
Given the theme of the conference, Curriculum Interrupted, we focus on the ways we can navigate the current national schisms as these are lived out in our professional and private lives. Grants halted, curricula banned, DEI deleted, histories omitted, federal agencies obliterated, these are but a few of the chess moves initiated at the national level. At the local level, universities are disbanding DEI offices, scouring for target terms on websites, syllabi, and programs, freezing hires, and folding to persecutions over free speech, all while we are expected to keep doing the work. And that is exactly what we must do, do the work, the work which now, more than ever is undeniably critical. But this work is not about what you might think, keeping your nose to the ground and doing what you can, rather it's about finding purpose, finding meaning. It’s about creating something that already doesn’t exist, not looking for acceptance, not moving in pleasure, but moving in meaning, trying to construct purpose through all the challenges. In doing so we have found the synchronicity between the stages of grief and the development of an intellectual, and a creative one at that. We offer a few words of advice in cultivating a life of meaning, understanding all the sacrifices and gains, while ascertaining what other moves are necessary on the chess board we are in here/now.
Presentation Description
.
Location
Room 1
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Carter, Roymieco A. and Villaverde, Leila E., "Parallels, Grief, and Creative Intellectual Development in the Search for Meaning" (2025). Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative. 28.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cssc/2025/2025/28
Parallels, Grief, and Creative Intellectual Development in the Search for Meaning
Room 1
Given the theme of the conference, Curriculum Interrupted, we focus on the ways we can navigate the current national schisms as these are lived out in our professional and private lives. Grants halted, curricula banned, DEI deleted, histories omitted, federal agencies obliterated, these are but a few of the chess moves initiated at the national level. At the local level, universities are disbanding DEI offices, scouring for target terms on websites, syllabi, and programs, freezing hires, and folding to persecutions over free speech, all while we are expected to keep doing the work. And that is exactly what we must do, do the work, the work which now, more than ever is undeniably critical. But this work is not about what you might think, keeping your nose to the ground and doing what you can, rather it's about finding purpose, finding meaning. It’s about creating something that already doesn’t exist, not looking for acceptance, not moving in pleasure, but moving in meaning, trying to construct purpose through all the challenges. In doing so we have found the synchronicity between the stages of grief and the development of an intellectual, and a creative one at that. We offer a few words of advice in cultivating a life of meaning, understanding all the sacrifices and gains, while ascertaining what other moves are necessary on the chess board we are in here/now.
