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´¡²ú²õ³Ù°ù²¹³¦³Ù:ÌýWhat does it mean to be a scholar who builds worlds? This talk invited attendees into the universe Dr. Kat Stephens-Peace (she/her) is actively constructing as a higher education faculty member and researcher, Caribbean research methodologist, arts-based research methodologist, and accessibility-focused intellectual. Rather than present a linear career narrative, Dr. KSP offered a map of research agendas, theoretical commitments, and methodological orientations that do not sit nearly alongside one another so much as they orbit, intersect, and illuminate. Drawing upon her grounding in Black Disability Studies, Literature, Critical and Intersectional ADHD Studies, and creative qualitative inquiry, Dr. KSP traced the intellectual and personal coordinates that have shaped how she sees higher education, who she researches with, and who she researches for, and accessibility’s place as not only a focus of her work, but a philosophy that runs throughout.

This talk provided an honest account of navigating academia as a multi-passionate faculty member who refuses to collapse into one lane or frame. Attendees encountered the throughlines connecting her research projects, understandingn what her work contributes to while challenging the field of higher education. Dr. KSP shared the intellectual traditions she draws on, as an interdisciplinary, disability focused, higher education researcher. This talk was an open door into a universe still in formation.

Presenter Bio: Dr. Kat J. Stephens-Peace is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education, in Educational Leadership at Teachers College, Ball State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2022), as well as an Ed.M. from Teachers College, Columbia University in Higher and Postsecondary Education (2018).  She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, concentrating in Caribbean Literature and Writing, Sociology, and Ed Policy (2014), Dr. Stephens-Peace is also a strong community college advocate, having transferred from Borough of Manhattan Community College (2012) where she majored in Creative Writing and Literature.

Dr. Stephens-Peace is a critical qualitative-creative.  She is a transdisciplinary education researcher, scholar, and educator.  Her areas of research inquiry are informed by her being a Caribbeanist in Higher Education, and her focus on disabled and crip, inclusive, international, and decolonized Black Studies, with an attention to the Global South.  Recent research projects have positioned Dr. Stephens-Peace as an student-identity and student-success focused researcher with respect to her work on Black women graduate students with disabilities (neurodivergence continuum), as well as Black Caribbean international and immigrant student populations. Her interests in arts based methods and alternative methods are prevalent in her work and use of poetry & digital media.  She has presented her research and theoretical papers at various national and international conferences.  Additionally, her work has appeared in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, and she have provided leadership and service to organization in the education space.