MA in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities Program
At the back pages of my resume you’ll find an eclectic employment record: maid, dishwasher, cook, poet, photographer, housepainter, entrepreneur of a company producing tee shirts with Vermont artists’ work and a start-up garden center and landscaping business. The front pages proclaim my career in education.
Every time I think I have answered the question of ‘Who am I?’ something new comes up. I have been deeply curious about identity and what makes me who I am since I never fit anywhere as a kid. I was always shopping in the boys’ department and often gender mis-identified. Identity, memoir, figuring out what makes us who we are, how we are constructed by inner and outer forces, truly fascinates me. This is the heart of my doctoral dissertation.
My search for understanding and meaning in who we are is embedded in a question of why we are here—and a desire and passion to make this world a better place for having been here. That is my definition of social justice. This is my educational philosophy: learn to be what you want in the world.
How do I offer you liberation and emancipation in our exchange here at Goddard? How do you and I come to interrogate and then emancipate our privilege and power and then take that knowledge and understanding into our life and work?
How do we do just work with the deepest wakefulness, consciousness, and power as an ally?
Oh! I’m a Mom, a Sister, a Great-Aunt, a Lover, a Teacher, a Gardener, a Writer, a Friend, and a Learner too.
Looking forward to meeting you.
Educational Background: Ed.D UVM, 2006. M.A. & B.A. Women’s Studies, Goddard College.
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Shelley Vermilya, MA, EdD