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Tonight I'm prepping for teaching my final Access to Justice & Legal Practice in Rural America course @Harvard_Law tomorrow and feeling...full of conflicting emotions. Understatement of the moment: I hadn't planned for it to unfold like this.
But I had always planned to give overdue recognition & thanks to the village of folks who made this course possible in ways they might not even know about, who put forth energy, expertise, & careful words and thereby built the foundation of our knowledge for the semester.
I'll start by thanking @lisareneepruitt, @EmilyAPrifogle @sarahkbowen1 & others who generously shared materials from their related courses as starting points. This course was new for me & HLS, so I'd have started from pure scratch if not for these trailblazing profs. Thank you.
Thank you to @micheleeamn for kicking us off w/ a real-life rural stereotype story for the ages. Thanks to @CrystalWilki @abyork @micheleeamn @Sarah_Smarsh @KAWebb & @TheHomecomers podcast, esp @vwomackphd @cactuswrenwrite & @Leydy_MRangel eps, for vital rural context & nuance.
Thank you @OatesBryce for writing the "Measuring Rurality" @medium piece to which I hitched a similar work-in-progress for @dailyyonder, which then dovetailed into one @andrewvandam was working on for @washingtonpost. A triple-scoop data sundae. The class read all 3 in a row.
Thank you @cullen_art @oliviacpaschal @AndrewStrickler @meeshellchen @cactuswrenwrite @sienachrisman @andreagermanos @OatesBryce @aprilleticia @susie_c etc who tell stories that might otherwise go untold. It's been a gift to explore themes of (in)justice as woven thru your words.
Thank you to legal scholars, brave academics, & #A2J warriors like @MaybellRomero @lisareneepruitt @JessPish the folks at @verainstitute @ABAesq & plenty of others too cool for Twitter for #rural legal scholarship in what is otherwise one of the most urbanormative fields of all.
Thank you to @micheleeamn @mattdunnevt @lisareneepruitt & others for joining us as classroom guests along the way, keeping the conversation authentic & engaging, reminding our students of impending life after law school, & rolling w/ changing tides as this semester has unfolded.
Thank you to my students - for doing the hard work of claiming new space in established grounds, for bringing so much of yourselves to the experience, and for making room for others (including me) to do the same during some of the most difficult periods in our lives.
Thank you to Twitter for providing ample (& often hilarious) fodder for classroom exercises exploring urban & rural perspectives on current events. @thetrillbillies got major play in this arena. Thank you also to @RouncingTigger & others who keep rural justice core to their work.
Finally, and more than ever, thank you to Kentucky for being home.
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